A Change for the Better? A Life Course Analysis of the Housing Careers of Somalis and Turks in the Danish Housing Market

This thesis explores the preconditions of change and the possibilities for change
in the housing careers of Somalis and Turks through an application of life course
analysis. By directing inquiry to the process by which lives are lived and highlighting the importance of both structure and agency, life course analysis offers
a rewarding framework for an analysis of housing careers. The aim of the thesis
is pursued through two strands explored in four independent papers. The first
strand focuses on one specific transition in the housing career, leaving home,
and is based register data analysis. The main findings are that some ethnic differences
in home-leaving patterns persist but that they diminish when controlling
for key covariates on home-leaving and settlement patterns. An assimilation
process, while slow-moving, is taking place. The second strand of the thesis
focuses on change more generally in the housing careers of Somalis and Turks
through analyses of in-depth interviews. The main finding is that while Turkish
migrant workers and Somali refugees face constraints in relation to housing,
there are choices available to them in the Copenhagen housing market. Change
comes about in the intersection between preferences, resources, possibilities and
restraints. All in all, the thesis offers an optimistic evaluation of the housing situation of Somalis and Turks in the Danish housing market.