Housing Values and the Residential Settlement of Migrants: Zooming in on Neighbourhoods in Italian Provincial Capitals

Abstract

This study looks at the relationship between housing values (prices and rents) and the residential settlement of migrants in different neighbourhoods in Italian provincial capitals. We exploit here the high spatial resolution dataset on the settlement of migrants developed within the Data for Integration (D4I) project. The D4I information on resident population characteristics was merged with a dataset on housing values for civilian and economic residential units using boundaries defined by local housing market characteristics. The results suggest that: (1) more diverse neighbourhoods are also those with relatively lower housing values; (2) the relationship between housing values and the concentration of migrants is non-linear; and (3) the sign and significance of the association varies significantly depending on the origin of migrants.

Competitiveness of Germany and the Labour Market: A Migration Perspective

“…Findings from the literature have demonstrated a non-linear relationship between housing prices and the concentration of migrants. The evidence of this relationship has been indicated by Kalantaryan & Alessandrini (2020) when researching housing prices and the residential settlement of migrants in Italy. The cost of living in a destination country often appears as a factor of migration, especially for highly skilled individuals, as potential migrants may be unwilling to migrate to a host country with the high level of prices (European Commission, 2018a; Malc et al, 2021;Gavurova et al, 2020b).…”