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Theory states that residential segregation may have a strong impact on people's life opportunities. It is unclear, however, to what extent the residential environment is a good representation of overall exposure to different people and environments. Daily mobility could reduce the negative effects of segregation if people change environments and/or become more mixed. They could also enhance existing segregation patterns if daily mobility produces more segregated environments. This article uses mobile phone data to track daily mobility patterns with regard to residential segregation. We test the extent to which patterns differ between residents in immigrant-dense areas and those from areas with a greater proportion of natives. Results suggest, in line with previous research, that daily mobility patterns are strongly segregated. Phones originating from more immigrant-dense areas are more likely to (1) remain in the home area and (2) move towards other immigrant-dense areas. Hence, although mobility does mitigate segregation to some extent, most people are mainly exposed to people and neighbourhoods who live in similar segregated environments. These findings are especially interesting given the case study areas: two medium-sized Swedish regions with relatively low levels of segregation and inequality and short journey distances.

We investigate the degree to which the ethnic group composition of “port-of-entry neighborhood” (PoE), the first permanent settlement after immigration, affects the employment prospects of refugees in Sweden during the subsequent 10 years. We use panel data on working-age adults from Iran, Iraq, and Somalia immigrating into Sweden from 1995 to 2004. We control for initial individual and labor market characteristics, use instrumental variable regression to avoid bias from geographic selection, and stratify models by gender and co-ethnic employment and education rates within the neighborhood. We find that the impact of co-ethnic neighbors in the PoE varies dramatically by gender.

Roger Andersson och Åsa Bråmå, IBF, bidrar med en analys av ett femtiotal sådana storskaliga områden i Stockholmsregionen byggda från mitten av 1950-talet till en bit in på 1980-talet. Exemplen Bredäng och Rinkeby följs mer detaljerat under hela perioden sedan de byggdes. Som framgår av kapitlets rubrik fokuserar det på frågor om vad ett områdes start betytt för utvecklingen därefter samt hur makroekonomiska förändringar –särskilt 1990-talskrisen– påverkade alla områden men allra mest de som redan då hade en stor andel invånare med utländsk bakgrund. För att förstå det senare behöver man också förstå vilken roll upplåtelseformer (sammansättningen bostadsrätter-hyresrätter) spelar för bosättningsmönster och segregation.

Nordic countries rank high on measures indicating tolerant views on immigrants. Yet, ethnic residential segregation is stated as being a major social problem in these countries. Neighbourhood flight and avoidance behaviour among the native born could be a sign of less tolerant views on minorities, but could of course be restricted to native-born residents in areas of high-ethnic concentration. So far, no research in these countries has explicitly focused on the majority population’s view on segregation, and we know little about how native-born residents in different neighbourhood contexts view ethnic segregation or how own residential experience shapes decisions on staying or leaving; this paper aims to help fill this research lacuna. In a survey targeting 9000 native-born residents in three Nordic capital cities—stratified into neighbourhood movers and stayers and into neighbourhoods having different proportions of non-Nordic-born residents—we answer three questions: do native-born respondents prefer a neighbourhood ethnic mix? Do they see ethnic segregation as a problem? Do they prefer lower, current or higher shares of ethnic minorities in their own neighbourhoods?

This article investigates the relevance of spatial assimilation theory in Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo, and Stockholm. An important backdrop is the “Nordic model of welfare”: We assume that welfare generosity decreases the speed of spatial integration. The study uses non-Western immigrants as a target group and natives as a reference group. We register location in 2000 and 2008, and analyze integration in terms of neighborhood status and residential segregation. The results show, in all cities, a lack of aggregate upward mobility in the spatial hierarchy. We also find a negligible effect of upward earnings mobility on upward spatial mobility. Upward spatial mobility increases integration in ethnic terms, but other factors work in the opposite direction and contribute to prevailing segregation. The results as a whole strengthen the purported association between welfare state characteristics and spatial integration. Deviant outcomes, particularly in Helsinki, are explained by immigration history and housing market structure.

Economic crises are often associated with increasing levels of income segregation and income polarization. Poor neighborhoods generally hit more severely, with unemployment levels increasing and income levels dropping more than in better-off neighborhoods. In this article, we study the correlation between economic recession and income segregation in Malmö, Sweden, with focus on development in the regions' poorest neighborhoods. We compare and contrast these areas' development during a period of economic crisis (1990–1995) with development during a period characterized by relative economic stability. Our findings  suggest that (1) income segregation and income polarization indeed increased during the period of economic crisis; (2) neighborhoods that were already poor before the crisis fared worse than the region in general; and (3) this development was due to both in situ changes and to residential sorting, where the differences in income and employment status between people moving into a neighborhood, those moving out, and those who remained in place were greater during the period of recession compared to the more stable period.