Housing changes of immigrants and their descendants using long-term census panel data from England and Wales

Parth Pandya; Hill Kulu; Chia Liu

doi:10.4054/DemRes.2026.54.36

Volume 54 - Article 36 | Pages 1159–1202

Housing changes of immigrants and their descendants using long-term census panel data from England and Wales

By Parth Pandya, Hill Kulu, Chia Liu

Date received:

8 Dec 2025

Date published:

9 Jun 2026

Word count:

6767

Keywords:

descendants of immigrants, England, housing, immigrant, residential mobility, Wales

DOI:

10.4054/DemRes.2026.54.36

Supplementary Material:

54-36 supplementary material (pdf file, 288 kB)

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Abstract

Background: Previous research shows that ethnic minorities in Britain are disproportionately affected by housing insecurity. However, studies rarely distinguish between migrant generations, making it difficult to assess intergenerational life course disadvantage.

Objective: The objective of this study is to examine the long-term residential mobility and housing trends among migrant generations across different country-of-origin backgrounds. By so doing, we aim to gain further understanding of housing outcomes and evaluate the residential assimilation and stratification theories.

Methods: We use the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study for England and Wales, a large census-based dataset. We use pooled binary and multinomial logistic regression methods to analyse residential and housing changes by origin group and migrant generation from 1971 to 2011.

Results: First, we find that for most groups, the 1.5 and second generations have a higher likelihood of moving than the first generation. Second, the likelihood of moving to homeownership increases across migrant generations; the descendants of Indian and Pakistani immigrants are even more likely to move to homeownership than the native population. Third, we find that residential mobility decreases over time for nearly all groups.

Conclusions: Overall, our findings support both the assimilation and stratification theories, with intergenerational socioeconomic support and housing market instability being potential factors. Groups which, on average, have higher socioeconomic status and accumulated wealth are more likely to move up the housing ladder. However, for groups which are, on average, more socioeconomically disadvantaged, wealth alone does not explain housing tenure differences, and these differences are not as pronounced as the literature suggests.

Contribution: This is one of the few studies to investigate changes in residential mobility and housing specifically among the 1.5 and the second generations in the United Kingdom. We find that socioeconomically disadvantaged groups have a persistent housing disadvantage. However, against the backdrop of relatively recent housing market insecurity, our results highlight long-term positive housing outlook for some groups.

Author’s Affiliation

Parth Pandya - University of St Andrews, United Kingdom EMAIL
Hill Kulu - University of St Andrews, United Kingdom EMAIL
Chia Liu - University of St Andrews, United Kingdom EMAIL

Housing changes of immigrants and their descendants using long-term census panel data from England and Wales

Abstract

Author’s Affiliation

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