Spatial Integration of Immigrants in Nordic Cities: The Relevance of Spatial Assimilation Theory in a Welfare State Context

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.

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Delayed Spatial Assimilation: Multigenerational Incorporation of the Mexican–Origin Population in Los Angeles

City and Community ◽

10.1111/j.1540-6040.2007.00213.x ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 6 (3) ◽

pp. 193-209 ◽

Cited By ~ 52

Author(s):

Susan K. Brown

Keyword(s):

Los Angeles ◽

Generational Differences ◽

Mexican Origin ◽

Median Income ◽

Spatial Integration ◽

Data Set ◽

Individual Level ◽

Spatial Assimilation ◽

Ethnic Integration ◽

Assimilation Model

This article examines the nature and degree of spatial integration across generations among young adults of Mexican origin in metropolitan Los Angeles. Drawing on a new, unique data set that covers more than four generations of persons of Mexican origin, the research tests the extent to which residential settlement patterns follow two potential trajectories: one specified by a model of traditional spatial assimilation, which views economic and ethnic integration as increasing steadily across generations, or a new model of delayed spatial assimilation, which depicts residential mobility as stalling for a generation or more, in part because of intergenerational family obligations up through the second generation. While individual–level socioeconomic characteristics tend to rise uniformly in support of the classic assimilation model, neighborhood–level evidence shows that substantial spatial integration does not emerge until the third generation—a finding supporting the delayed assimilation model. Also, generational differences in the proportion Anglo of respondents’ neighborhoods outpace differences in median income. These results are consistent with the idea that delayed spatial assimilation involves an additional early phase of incorporation for those of Mexican origin.

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Social Investment in a Federal Welfare State

10.1093/oso/9780198790488.003.0023 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Alain Noël

Keyword(s):

Welfare State ◽

Social Forces ◽

Social Investment ◽

Political Actors ◽

Social Actors ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Labour Market Participation ◽

Social Pact ◽

State Context ◽

Instructive Case

Following the 1995 referendum on sovereignty, Quebec’s main political and social actors agreed on a new social pact that combined efforts to eliminate the deficit with ambitious social investment reforms. In the following years, Quebec governments, headed in turn by the province’s two main political parties, substantially transformed a number of social policies, and succeeded in increasing labour-market participation, limiting the rise of inequality, and reducing poverty. The Quebec experience, which unfolded while the Canadian government gradually moved away from social investment, can be seen as an instructive case on the possibilities of social investment in a highly constrained, federal and liberal welfare state context. It underlines, in particular, the importance of social forces and political actors in bringing about unexpected changes, and points as well to trade-offs between the maintenance of established social programmes and the development of new ones.

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The roles of employers and trade unions in immigration and welfare state policymaking

Journal of European Social Policy ◽

10.1177/0958928720960592 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 30 (5) ◽

pp. 521-527

Author(s):

Carlo Knotz ◽

Flavia Fossati ◽

Gemma Scalise ◽

Gerda Hooijer

Keyword(s):

Social Security ◽

Welfare State ◽

Economic Integration ◽

Trade Unions ◽

Special Issue ◽

The Social ◽

Social Partners ◽

Integration Of Immigrants ◽

Research Problems ◽

State Policymaking

Whether and under which conditions immigrants should be admitted and obtain access to employment and social security is an issue of continuously high political salience across the advanced democracies. Unions and employers, as traditionally influential actors in immigration and social policymaking, have important roles to play in this area, but their exact preferences, strategies and behaviour are theoretically difficult to determine and are still only partly understood. This article outlines a series of research problems regarding the roles of social partners in the social and economic integration of immigrants and discusses how the articles contained in this special issue address these problems.

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The political economy of immigration and welfare state effort: evidence from Europe

European Political Science Review ◽

10.1017/s175577391900016x ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 357-375 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Clare Fenwick

Keyword(s):

Political Economy ◽

Welfare State ◽

Social Welfare ◽

Welfare States ◽

The Political ◽

Foreign Born ◽

Political Issue ◽

Welfare Provision ◽

Welfare Spending ◽

Welfare Generosity

AbstractThis article explores whether immigration plays a role in determining national welfare state effort in 16 European countries. It examines the relationship between stocks of migrants, the foreign-born population, on two different indicators of welfare state effort – social welfare spending as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) and a welfare generosity index. The nexus between immigration and welfare is a controversial and highly sensitive political issue, and as such it typically divides opinion. Traditionally, it has been argued that increases in immigration create pressures for governments to reduce levels of social welfare provision. By building on theories and results from the political economy literature, this article provides further evidence on the debate through using a fresh approach to operationalize welfare state effort. The empirical results show that the foreign-born population has a positive and statistically significant relationship with social welfare spending and no statistically significant association with the welfare generosity index. The findings provide no evidence to support the hypothesis that the higher levels of immigration lead to reduced levels of social welfare provision. On the contrary, these findings lend support to the view that increasing immigration leads to welfare state expansion rather than retrenchment, and that European welfare states remain resilient in the face of the globalization of migration.

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The Limits of Spatial Assimilation for Immigrants’ Full Integration

The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science ◽

10.1177/0002716211432280 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 641 (1) ◽

pp. 220-246 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Zoua M. Vang

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

African Immigrants ◽

The United States ◽

White Americans ◽

Spatial Integration ◽

Spatial Assimilation ◽

National Comparison ◽

Assimilation Process ◽

Cross National ◽

Residential Integration

Residential integration with the dominant native-born population is believed to be a crucial stage in immigrants’ overall assimilation process. It is argued that without residential integration it would be difficult, if not impossible, for immigrants to achieve full incorporation into the host society. This article compares the sociospatial experiences of African immigrants in the United States and Ireland. Results show that African immigrants in Ireland have achieved spatial integration with Irish nationals, while their counterparts in the United States remain spatially separated from white Americans. The extent to which African immigrants’ integration in Ireland can produce other forms of assimilation is questionable, however. Likewise, despite being segregated from whites, African immigrants in the United States have made some modest spatial gains that may facilitate their integration. The cross-national comparison draws into question the generally accepted notion that residential integration is an important intermediary substage in the assimilation process.

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Real but Unequal Representation in Welfare State Reform

Politics & Society ◽

10.1177/0032329219897984 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 48 (1) ◽

pp. 131-163 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Wouter Schakel ◽

Brian Burgoon ◽

Armen Hakhverdian

Keyword(s):

Welfare State ◽

Survey Data ◽

Policy Change ◽

State Reform ◽

Industrialized Democracies ◽

Welfare Generosity ◽

Citizen Preferences ◽

Welfare Politics ◽

Actual Policy ◽

Welfare State Reform

Scholars have long debated whether welfare policymaking in industrialized democracies is responsive to citizen preferences and whether such policymaking is more responsive to rich than to poor citizens. Debate has been hampered, however, by difficulties in matching data on attitudes toward particular policies to data on changes in the generosity of actual policies. This article uses better, more targeted measures of policy change that allow more valid exploration of responsiveness for a significant range of democracies. It does so by linking multicountry and multiwave survey data on attitudes toward health, pension, and unemployment policies and data on actual policy generosity, not just spending, in these domains. The analysis reveals that attitudes correlate strongly with subsequent changes in welfare generosity in the three policy areas and that such responsiveness is much stronger for richer than for poorer citizens. Representation is likely real but also vastly unequal in the welfare politics of industrialized democracies.

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