Changes in the spatial distribution of minority populations and factors responsible for such changes form an important research topic in the study of the contemporary immigrant societies of Europe and North America. This paper clarifi es both the trends and determinants of the spatial redistribution of mainly Russian-speaking ethnic minorities in Estonia by focusing on out-migration from the gateway cities or the main minority concentration areas. We use individual data from the 2000 census. The main results show that the dominant fl ow of migration among members of ethnic minorities is out of the main gateway cities in Estonia, and this trend is very different from the situation during the Soviet period. All of the personal characteristics that measure intentional ties with the majority population and the host country, such as profi ciency in Estonian, having an Estonian partner, and Estonian citizenship, exert a positive infl uence on both leaving these areas and settling in non-ethnic destinations, while the mere passage of time (generation replacement) has no straightforward infl uence on minority spatial redistribution.