Exiting distressed neighbourhoods: The timing of spatial assimilation among international migrants in Sweden

Abstract

Different theoretical frameworks offer competing explanations for the settlement patterns and residential mobility of international migrants. Some highlight migrants' neighbourhood preferences, whereas others emphasise structural constraints in the housing market. This paper aims to test three theories on migrants' socio‐spatial mobility—the theories of spatial assimilation, place stratification, and ethnic preference—by investigating the extent to which migrants move away from distressed immigrant‐dense neighbourhoods in the Swedish cities of Stockholm and Malmö, as well as the timing of that mobility. Applying discrete‐time event history analysis to unique Swedish longitudinal register data, the paper reveals considerable differences in the residential mobility patterns between migrant groups and between the two cities. It also finds that newly arrived migrants are more likely to move away from distressed areas compared with long‐established ones. These results cast doubt on the spatial assimilation theory, indicating evidence for the place stratification theory. The paper contributes to an enhanced understanding of the determinants of residential segregation in Swedish metropolitan areas.

Immigrants’ mobility towards native-dominated neighbourhoods: the role of individual resources, country of origin, and settlement context

“…This indicates support for place stratification theory over the relatively simplistic view of spatial assimilation theory (e.g. Vogiazides 2018). Other studies that have not specifically looked into spatial assimilation or place stratification, but rather the reproduction of neighbourhoods via residential mobility, have found that immigrants do move away from distressed areas and that this mobility is socioeconomically selective (Andersson and Bråmå 2004;Andersson 2013;Bråmå and Andersson 2005;Bråmå 2008).…”

“…Bolt and van Kempen 2003). Spatial assimilation in the Nordic countries has mainly been studied from three perspectives: moving away from distressed immigrant-dense neighbourhoods (Vogiazides 2018;Macpherson and Strömgren 2013), moving to a neighbourhood considered higher status in socioeconomic terms (Wessel et al 2017;Magnusson Turner and Wessel 2013), and moving into homeownership as an indicator of integration (Magnusson Turner and Hedman 2014;Kauppinen, Andersen, and Hedman 2015;Kauppinen and Vilkama 2016). Most of these studies find some limited support for the spatial assimilation thesis 1 (although Wessel et al (2017) find a complete lack of spatial integration), but the studies that consider differences between immigrant groups find that variation between groups is insufficiently explained by socioeconomic attributes.…”

“…An important part of this study is the spatial unit used in the analysis: individual bespoke neighbourhoods instead of available administrative geographical units. In the Swedish context, Small-Area Market Statistics (SAMS) spatial units are usually used by researchers studying immigrants' spatial mobility (Macpherson and Strömgren 2013;Vogiazides 2018;Bråmå 2008). However, using SAMS units when conducting research on the entire country of Sweden can be problematic because the size and population density of SAMS units differ greatly between municipalities.…”

“…This results in a unique longitudinal panel dataset covering all of Sweden. When studying immigrants' residential patterns and mobility, analyses are generally restricted to the largest metropolitan areas (Bolt, van Kempen, and van Ham 2008; or to comparing just a few cities (Edgar 2014;Logan, Zhang, and Alba 2002;Wessel et al 2017;Vogiazides 2018), but do not examine other contexts within a country. To the author's knowledge, this is the first study in the Nordic context that covers an entire country and offers insights into differences between municipality types.…”

Boforhold og boligtilfredshet blant innvandrere i Distrikts-Norge

“…Studier av innvandreres boforhold er ofte fokusert på preferanser, ressurser og struktur i boligmarkedet (Van Kempen, 2003;Vogiazides, 2018). I tillegg til innvandrernes økonomiske ressurser handler dette om hvordan boligmarkedet fungerer der de er, og, for nykommere, om hvordan de navigerer i nye og kanskje ukjente kontekster.…”