Migration and Neighborhood Change in Sweden: The Interaction of Ethnic Choice and Income Constraints

Abstract

The majority of segregation studies focus on ethnic concentration but there is growing research that also documents high and increasing status segregation. While empirical studies have documented the existence of both ethnic concentration and status segregation, there is only limited research on the two complexly related distributions. In this article, we examine the conjoint relationship of ethnic and economic segregation in bespoke neighborhoods in Sweden and estimate how the interaction of ethnic choice and economic constraint effects segregation outcomes. Empirically, we examine the finding that the large-scale foreignborn flows into Swedish cities have created migrant/ethnic concentrations which are also areas of concentrated poverty. We provide evaluations of how the combination of ethnicity and status are factors in migrant concentration, and evaluate the conjoint relationship of ethnic concentration and economic segregation. We demonstrate that residential sorting by income in large cities in Sweden is strongly associated with ethnic concentration. We conclude that preferences modified by budget constraints combine to create continuing immigrant clustering.

Exploring the dynamics of neighborhood ethnic segregation with agent-based modelling: an empirical application to Bradford

“…The existence of the two dynamics of preferences and constraints-which, as we will see, we consider separately in our model-imply that neighborhood ethnic segregation might depend on how socioeconomic resources distribute across groups (Krysan and Crowder 2017). More generally, one could hypothesize that if in a certain city all Asians are poor and all White British are rich, this might lead to full ethnic segregation; however, if groups are mixed in socioeconomic terms, this may help decrease ethnic segregation, since ethnic preferences will interact with socioeconomic preferences and with housing constraints (Malmberg and Clark 2020).…”

“…The role of socioeconomic resources has been explored by different studies dealing with the Schelling model. In their study of Swedish cities, for example, Malmberg and Clark (2020) show why income based sorting can be a factor that counteracts the chance of full segregation as predicted by the Schelling model. They demonstrate that ethnic concentration decreases the housing price of neighborhoods, and this attracts low income individuals both with and without an ethnic minority background.…”

“…With some exceptions (see e.g. the work by geographer William Clark and collaborators: Malmberg and Clark (2020), Clark and Fossett (2008), Clark (2002)) ethnic segregation studies have rarely sought to explore the interaction between dynamics and emergent segregation structures into one analysis. Inspired by the field of analytical sociology, whose main aim is to understand what complex and intricated set of social processes and interactions lead to emergent macro phenomena Bearman 2009, Manzo 2014), our paper helps filling in this gap through the study of segregation dynamics in Bradford.…”

Exclusion and Inequality in Late Working Life: National Country Context: Sweden

“…It is highly ethnificated (Guilherme Fernandes, 2013;Wikström & Ahnlund, 2018) and geographically dispersed (Scarpa, 2013). The biggest issues are arising in segregated areas, where ethnic concentration and economic segregation form a conjoint relationship (Malmberg & Clark, 2020), urban housing policies have been rolled back and living in such an area thus means a higher risk of poverty and social exclusion (Thörn & Thörn, 2017).…”

Neighborhood Effects and Neighborhood Dynamics

“…In “Migration and Neighborhood Change in Sweden: The Interaction of Ethnic Choice and Income Constraints,” Bo Malmberg and William A. V. Clark (2020) address the puzzle seen in a simultaneous occurrence of increasing income segregation and poverty concentrations in the face of stable or decreasing ethnic segregation in Sweden. They extend the classic Schelling framework to consider the joint influences of income differences and racial preferences, noting that existing work has focused on one of these influences on segregation while excluding the other.…”