Life Course Triggers of Residential and Housing Tenure Changes among Immigrants and Their Descendants in the UK

Parth Pandya , University of St Andrews
Hill Kulu, University of St Andrews
Julia Mikolai, University of St Andrews
Chia Liu, University of St Andrews

A large body of literature has found that life course events are strongly related to residential mobility, however, little attention is focused on immigrants and their descendants, particularly in the UK. The UK has a long and varied migration history, which, allows for the detailed examination of migrant groups, particularly descendants, and of different socio-demographic profiles, such as partnership and fertility behaviours, due to wide-ranging migratory intents and backgrounds. Across migrant groups and generations, housing (dis)advantage and residential mobility rates are heterogeneous due to unique, structural housing barriers and opportunities, intergenerational wealth and resources differences, and socio-economic attainment. Hence, examining lifecourse differences for migrant groups is crucial to further understand increasing lifecourse complexity and destandardisation. Using Understanding Society data, we examine residential and housing tenure changes in relation to changes in partnership, birth parity, and employment for immigrants and their descendants in the UK. We find that groups who place greater importance on marriage and childbearing are more likely to move when partnered and at higher birth parities, with the opposite for more liberal norm groups. In addition, their descendant counterparts are most likely to move at first birth, rather than at higher birth parities, which may indicate assimilation. Groups with greater labour market advantage are more likely to move when employed. South Asian groups are more likely to enter homeownership with children compared to their native counterparts, particularly at higher birth parities. The differences reflect extent of assimilation and socio-economic resources, especially among groups with divergent cultural norms.

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 Presented in Session 64. Flash Session Residential Context and Spatial Segregation in Migrant Populations