Refugee Homeownership in the U.S: Determinants and the Role of Social Capital

• In Event: International Migration Section Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 10. Immigrant integration/assimilation

Abstract

Homeownership is a cultural and economic indicator of socioeconomic success in the United States. While many studies have explored homeownership among immigrants, fewer have addressed whether those factors which impact homeownership among immigrants in the U.S. also influence homeownership among refugees. Understanding this is particularly important in light of changes in the racial and ethnic diversity of refugees in the U.S. as new conflicts emerge and others resolve. Given differential housing outcomes along racial lines in the U.S., it’s important to understand how different experiences of migration interact with race and impact key outcomes such as homeownership. To date, studies that have explored homeownership among refuges have most often used qualitative data from specific geographic areas because of the difficulties in obtaining a random sample of refugees. This research uses one of the only random samples of refugees in the U.S., the Annual Survey of Refugees, to explore what factors are associated with homeownership and whether these factors differ by country of origin. Using logistic regression, this research finds that socioeconomic predictors of homeownership alone do not explain differences between country of origin groups regarding household homeownership. In addition to socioeconomic indicators, household characteristics and social capital help account for some country of origin differences, though unique country effects remains for households from Burma, El Salvador, Eritrea, Ukraine, and Somalia. Further, these effects hint that racialization processes may hinder homeownership for households from Eritrea and Somalia.

Author

• Hillary Douglas, University of Iowa