Identifying rental discrimination on the Flemish housing market: an intersectional approach

Abstract

This study aims to identify rental discrimination on the Flemish rental housing market in Belgium, taking the intersectional nature of discrimination into account. Most discrimination studies focus on unequal access based on one individual discrimination ground. This practice eludes the context of the other discrimination grounds in which rental discrimination occurs and neglects the intersectional nature of discrimination. We therefore conducted 8.245 correspondence tests in almost all municipalities in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. We apply an intersectional lens, by considering the relation and interaction between gender (male/female), ethnic origin (Moroccan/Polish) and the homogeneity of names (homogenous/mixed). We find four strata of rental discrimination, in which Moroccan female rental candidates with a homogenous name experience most discrimination, indicating that multiple categorical identities enforce each other. Without a full intersectional approach, these layered patterns of exclusion would have been hidden behind the bold boundaries of ethnic or gender categorizations.