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International Journal of Housing Policy 3Downloaded by [Norsk Institutt for By og] at 07:07 11 March 2013particular difficulties in accessing decent housing, which could be increased or lessenedby different elements of housing policy. For example, rules for access or loans to housingcan improve or hamper immigrants’ possibilities of getting access to certain tenures. If thehousing market is difficult to understand, it is likely to be more difficult for immigrantswith a limited knowledge of the host society to act on the market and find good solutionsto their housing needs (Søholt, 2007; Søholt & Astrup, 2009a).As has been established in studies of tenure preferences (Skifter Andersen, 2011; Artle& Varaiya, 1978), demand for homeownership is highly dependent on future expectations. Ifhouseholds expect stable future conditions like employment, rising income and permanentsettlement, they will be much more inclined to opt for homeownership. Newly arrivedimmigrants, especially, are often uncertain about their future and whether they will settlepermanently in the new country or go back to where they came from. It must therefore beexpected that immigrants, all things being equal, will have a higher preference for rentingthan the native population.Some studies (Aalbers, 2002; Andersson, 1998; Skifter Andersen, 2008; Søholt &Astrup 2009a; Molina, 2010) point to discriminatory practices in the housing market thatdisadvantage ethnic minorities. In particular, social/public and private landlords to a certainextent exclude ethnic minorities from their housing. The extent to which discriminationoccurs can depend on the way housing tenures are regulated and supported through housingpolicy. If access to housing is very dependent on decisions made by administrators ofhousing and is subject to local discretion, there is greater scope for discrimination than ifthere are strict rules on the allocation of vacant dwellings. Moreover, the level of demandfor the housing in question is important: if demand greatly exceeds supply there will bequeues, which will tend to generate conditions more conducive to discrimination. Onemanifestation of discrimination in the private rental market is that immigrants may haveto pay more than the native population, if there is no rent regulation (Røed Larsen &Sommervoll, 2011). Surplus demand can either be a result of price and rent regulationsthat keep prices and rents below market levels, or could be due to a housing shortage ingeneral, or that the supply of publicly supported housing for low-income groups is toolow. There could also be discriminatory practices among banks or institutions providingcapital for the purchase of housing if, as a result of prejudice, ethnic minorities are seen asless solvent customers. Discrimination against immigrants by financial institutions can beinfluenced by the extent of public subsidies for housing and can be reduced by public loanguarantees.In many countries in northern Europe, immigration has grown in recent years and therehas been a general tendency among immigrant families to settle in certain parts of thehousing market, in limited parts of the cities (Musterd, Ostendorf, & Breebaart, 1998). Inmany countries they have settled in social/public housing. In this way some neighbourhoodsin the cities have gained a large proportion of ethnic minorities and have been transformedinto what we call ‘multi-ethnic neighbourhoods’, in which the majority ethnic population hasbecome a minority. It has been shown (Musterd, 2005; Johnston et al., 2002; Finney, 2002;Fong & Chan, 2010) that there is great variation between different ethnic groups concerningthe extent that they live in neighbourhoods with a high concentration of immigrants.Preferences for living in neighbourhoods with fellow countrymen could be importantin influencing which tenures and dwellings immigrants try to obtain and the kind ofaccommodation they can access. In different countries, ethnic enclaves and multi-ethnicneighbourhoods have been established in tenures, depending on how easy it has beenfor immigrants to gain access to these tenures. In some countries it has taken place inprivate rented housing, in others in social/public housing and sometimes in owner-occupied
4 H. Skifter Andersen et al.Downloaded by [Norsk Institutt for By og] at 07:07 11 March 2013housing. A hypothesis could be formulated that neighbourhoods with less attractive housingdominated by an easy to access tenure provide the basis for an initial influx of immigrants(Scaffer & Huang, 1975; Bleiklie, 1997; Søholt, 2007; Søholt & Astrup, 2009a).When the presence of ethnic groups becomes very visible, segregation processes called‘white flight’ and ‘white avoidance’ begin to appear. In the US it has been observed thatwhites ‘flee’ when the number of black residents in their neighbourhood exceeds a certainproportion of the population (Wright, Ellis, & Parks, 2005). A British study (Simpson &Finney, 2009) has shown that white flight is less important in the British case. In recentyears there has been a tendency to replace the concept of white flight with the more general‘white avoidance’, meaning that natives tend to avoid moving to neighbourhoods with manyimmigrants or special ethnic groups (Clark, 1992; Quillian, 2002; Bråmå, 2006; Bråmå &Andersson, 2010). As a consequence of these processes, it is easier for immigrants to gainaccess to these neighbourhoods, which are often dominated by certain tenures.As a result of the factors discussed above, and the segregation processes that follow,immigrants tend to reside in certain tenures and in less attractive or low-quality housing,often concentrated in certain neighbourhoods. The results are influenced by the structureof the housing market and the national and local housing policies that shape it.Methodology and research designAs stated in the introduction, we aim to compare housing policies in four Nordic countriesin order to identify elements that have a special importance for the housing options andchoices of immigrants. This will be done by analysing the extent to which immigrants’housing position deviates from that of the whole population in the relevant country.One of the main reasons why immigrants’ housing situations diverge from those ofthe native population is that in general they have lower incomes. It is therefore of greatimportance for immigrants as to what extent there is sufficient affordable housing, withsatisfactory access possibilities to the different housing segments for low-income groups.If low-income households in general have good access to affordable and decent housing,immigrants will benefit greatly from this. We therefore have to examine to what extentthe housing position of immigrants on the housing markets can be explained by incomeinequalities. If immigrants’ housing position can be fully explained by income inequalitiesand income differences between immigrants and the native population, there are no specialeffects of housing policies on immigrants.Housing inequalities between income groups, meaning to what extent housing opportunitiesfor different income groups are equal or unequal, will be measured by differencesin overcrowding between income groups in order to clarify whether there are high or lowdifferences in housing consumption between income groups, and by comparing ‘incomesegmentation’ in the housing market; that is, how different income groups are distributedon housing tenures. Segmentation of the housing market is a concept that has been usedto describe the way different people are allocated to different parts of the housing market(Lindberg & Lindèn,1989) or that different parts of the housing market are designed tomeet different kinds of demand (Rothenburg, Galster, Butler, & Pitkin, 1991).Income segmentation is created when different tenures are, to a major extent, madeavailable and attractive for households in different income groups. Segmentation oftenmeans that high-income groups are concentrated in certain parts of the housing market,mainly owner-occupied detached housing, while low-income groups mostly reside in poorquality rental housing or social/public housing. Segmentation can result from the wayhousing subsidies are designed. Tax subsidies in owner-occupation are most favourable
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