Housing trajectories of EU migrants: between quick emigration and shared housing as temporary and long-term solutions

Abstract

Over the past two decades, many European countries have witnessed new immigration patterns related to the gradual expansion of the European Union (EU). While migration motives and labour market positions of EU migrants are well-understood, relatively little is known about their housing positions in the hosting countries. Using sequence analyses and logistic regression on longitudinal register data from Statistics Netherlands, this article examines housing trajectories of EU migrants from seven countries in the Netherlands, over an eight-year period (2012–2019). Our results show that, while housing trajectories vary substantially in terms of length of stay in the Netherlands and access to social housing, private renting and homeownership, sharing is at the centre for all migrant groups, both as a temporary and long-term solution. Moreover, we show that varying housing trajectories can partially be explained through contrasting demographic and socio-economic profiles. Yet, even after controlling for such factors as income, age, and household composition, some differences between country of origin persist.