Spatial assimilation? The development in immigrants' residential career with duration of stay in Denmark

Many studies have shown that immigrants’ residential situation differs from natives and that other factors than housing needs and financial situation influence immigrants’ options and choices concerning housing and neighbourhood. Among others it has been indicated that immigrants could have a stronger preference for renting, because of insecurity about their future situation, and that especially newly arrived immigrants live in immigrant dense, so-called multi-ethnic, neighbourhoods. The spatial assimilation theory claims that during the course of time immigrants will move to other kinds of housing and neighbourhoods. In this paper the difference over time between immigrants’ residential careers and Danes during the years after their arrival is examined. The hypothesis tested is that immigrants’ residential situation gets closer to comparable Danes during the course of time. It is a longitudinal study based on data from 1985 to 2008 on Non-Western immigrants in Denmark. The results show that Non-Western immigrants steadily increase their presence in social housing and multi-ethnic neighbourhoods during their first ten years of stay; then it stagnates, and after 15 years of stay declines. Part of the initial increase in the frequency of living in multi-ethnic neighbourhoods can be ascribed to the increasing concentration of ethnic minorities in neighbourhoods instead of individual choice among immigrants. The study confirms spatial assimilation, but the change is not dramatic within the 24 years contained in the study.