A generational perspective on owner-occupation rates among migrants and their (grand)children in the Netherlands

Abstract

Classical assimilation theories hold that immigrant groups will slowly integrate economically over time over multiple generations, which implies that the (grand)children of immigrants will improve their housing market position compared to their (grand)parents and transition from rental housing to owner-occupation. This study uses unique data on the children and grandchildren of immigrants and native Dutch (‘third generation’) in 2018 to assess whether and how the descendants of large immigrant groups from the postwar era have attained ownership. The generational perspective is two-fold. First, we are interested in how individuals from various generations compare within and between origin groups (generational comparison). Second, the study also assesses the role of parental wealth and tenure in intergenerational transfers, i.e., ethnic and generational differences in the effects of these parental background variables. Our estimates from logistic regression models show that Surinamese-Dutch and Turkish-Dutch see higher predicted owner-occupation rates over generations, with some Turkish-Dutch groups having higher rates than native-Dutch. The parental background variables partly predict owner-occupation rates and explain group differences, which indicates the importance of generational transfers.