Age at Arrival and Immigrants' Housing Outcomes: Evidence from the UK

36 Pages Posted: 27 Oct 2021 Last revised: 23 Feb 2023

See all articles by Olayiwola Oladiran

Olayiwola Oladiran

University of Sheffield

Carolin Hoeltken

University of Cambridge - Department of Land Economy

Adesola Sunmoni

University of Reading

Date Written: August 2022

Abstract

We study the role of age at arrival for immigrants’ housing outcomes using a dataset representative of the population resident in the UK in 2014-2016. Age at arrival has previously been found to play a significant role in immigrants’ life outcomes. Unlike most prior studies, our data contain immigrants of all ages at arrival and the full range of countries of birth. Consistent with the literature, we find no significant difference between immigrants of all age groups under 18 when it comes to owning a home in later life, controlling for other factors. However, immigrants exhibit a significantly lower probability of being homeowners the later they enter the country, and this pattern holds for most regions of birth. Yet, housing and neighbourhood quality are mostly not affected by age at arrival. We also find that late-arrival immigrants are generally much less likely to be homeowners than Brits, while non-UK, Western European immigrants fare as well as their UK-born counterparts. The age-at-arrival-based homeownership gap disappears when we compare first-generation immigrants with second-generation immigrants, whom we deem to be a better comparison group from a cultural perspective. Cultural channels such as the immigrant’s proficiency in the language of the host country explain this gap. Lastly, immigrants rely less on housing welfare than natives, and later arrivals less than earlier ones.

Keywords: Homeownership, immigration, age at arrival

JEL Classification: J15, O18, R21, D15

Suggested Citation

Oladiran, Olayiwola and Hoeltken, Carolin and Sunmoni, Adesola, Age at Arrival and Immigrants' Housing Outcomes: Evidence from the UK (August 2022). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3950987 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3950987

Olayiwola Oladiran

University of Sheffield

17 Mappin Street
Sheffield, Sheffield S1 4DT
United Kingdom

Carolin Hoeltken (Contact Author)

University of Cambridge - Department of Land Economy ( email )

19 Silver Street
Cambridge, CB3 9EP
United Kingdom

Adesola Sunmoni

University of Reading

Whiteknights
Reading, Berkshire RG6 6AH
United Kingdom

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