Only a few studies deal with residential choice and its consequences for practical and symbolic neighborhood use of middle-class ethnic minorities. Most studies focus on either native (white) middle classes or on lower class ethnic minorities. With the example of middle-class Turkish-Germans in Berlin, I will move beyond this homogenizing view of ethnic minorities. In this paper, I will first of all show that finding a ‘good’ school – with a low share of ethnic minority students – is the most important reason to move from a socioeconomically weak to a more advantaged neighborhood. A move often occurs despite a general satisfaction with and attachment to the original neighborhood. This has important consequences for practical and symbolic neighborhood use, which in turn depends on whether or not the person’s new place of residence offers an urban lifestyle, featuring ethnic diversity and high degrees of sociability and familiarity. If such urbanity is given in a neighborhood, people use the neighborhood in daily life and identify with it. If, however, the new neighborhood is characterized by anonymity and absent ties, symbolic and practical neighborhood use is still focused on the old, socioeconomically weak neighborhood.
