Residential integration : towards a sending country perspective

Abstract

This position paper explores the key issues relating to how residential integration – a foundation dimension of migrant and minority integration – might be understood and further researched from a “country of origin” perspective. A series of questions are addressed: Are there transnational residential strategies of migrants? Is residential integration an indicator of integration, e.g. can owning a house be an indicator of integration? Are residential patterns in the receiving country negotiated in any way by the state of origin? And what is the role of home country institutions in assuring residential integration or separation? Looking at the nature and quality of the housing that minorities occupy, assessed in terms of factors such as tenure, overcrowding and disrepair, and at the patterns of migrant residence in receiving societies, including clustering or its absence, the paper covers the existing state of the art and methodology used in the field, before arguing for a shift to a country of origin perspective, beyond simply using country of origin as a variable in determining residential integration outcomes, but instead re-framing the issue in a transnational perspective. It introduces a new theoretical and methodological framing, shifting the emphasis from a static “social physics” to a processual, pathway-focused approach.