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 foreign-born 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.