The political economy of immigrant homeownership: housing assets and conservative shifts in South Korea

Abstract

This study examines how housing wealth influences the political incorporation of immigrants in South Korea, identifying asset accumulation as a key factor shaping redistributive preferences. Using nationally representative panel data, the analysis demonstrates that immigrants who acquire housing assets—whether through ownership or appreciation in property value—become less supportive of public provision directed at other foreign residents. While immigrants initially exhibit stronger support for state intervention, greater exposure to the housing market is associated with a growing perception that existing government support is adequate and a reduced inclination to endorse expanded immigrant-targeted spending. These shifts reflect not a uniform turn toward conservatism, but a reconfiguration of political attitudes shaped by economic security, social positioning, financial constraints, and the redrawing of intra-group boundaries. In South Korea’s asset-based welfare regime, housing functions not only as a source of private stability but also as a mechanism that mediates immigrants’ evolving relationship to the state and to other immigrant groups. By situating these dynamics within a non-Western context, this study contributes to broader debates on immigration, housing, and the stratifying effects of economic incorporation.