Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Discrimination in the Housing Market as an Impediment to European Labour Force Integration: The Case of Iceland

Kopsch, Fredrik LU ; Zoega, Gylfi and Björnsson, David F. (2017) p.1-23
Abstract
Labour market integration, and free movement of people, has been one of the key features behind the European Economic Area (EEA). In fact, the EEA states that the free movement of people is “perhaps the most important right for individuals, as it gives citizens of the 31 EEA countries the opportunity to live, work, establish business and study in any of these countries.” However, unless citizens within in the EEA are granted equal possibilities, the free movement will be of less value. This paper sets out to study the role of the rental housing market, in particular from the perspective of equal possibilities between majority (domestic) and minority (foreign) groups in Iceland. With the largest minority group of the Icelandic workforce... (More)
Labour market integration, and free movement of people, has been one of the key features behind the European Economic Area (EEA). In fact, the EEA states that the free movement of people is “perhaps the most important right for individuals, as it gives citizens of the 31 EEA countries the opportunity to live, work, establish business and study in any of these countries.” However, unless citizens within in the EEA are granted equal possibilities, the free movement will be of less value. This paper sets out to study the role of the rental housing market, in particular from the perspective of equal possibilities between majority (domestic) and minority (foreign) groups in Iceland. With the largest minority group of the Icelandic workforce being Polish, it is important from an integration perspective to study potential differences between native and Polish workers in possibilities to enter the rental housing market. By conducting an internet field experiment, we show that Polish men in fact face a more difficult situation on the rental housing market than others, which serves as an impediment to the free flow of labour for this group of immigrants. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Working paper/Preprint
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Discrimination, labour migration, housing market, field experiment, Iceland
pages
23 pages
publisher
University of Iceland
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
15139642-c7d0-46db-a7ee-5a361d01ac8a
date added to LUP
2018-01-09 15:58:17
date last changed
2018-11-21 21:37:11
@misc{15139642-c7d0-46db-a7ee-5a361d01ac8a,
  abstract     = {{Labour market integration, and free movement of people, has been one of the key features behind the European Economic Area (EEA). In fact, the EEA states that the free movement of people is “perhaps the most important right for individuals, as it gives citizens of the 31 EEA countries the opportunity to live, work, establish business and study in any of these countries.” However, unless citizens within in the EEA are granted equal possibilities, the free movement will be of less value. This paper sets out to study the role of the rental housing market, in particular from the perspective of equal possibilities between majority (domestic) and minority (foreign) groups in Iceland. With the largest minority group of the Icelandic workforce being Polish, it is important from an integration perspective to study potential differences between native and Polish workers in possibilities to enter the rental housing market. By conducting an internet field experiment, we show that Polish men in fact face a more difficult situation on the rental housing market than others, which serves as an impediment to the free flow of labour for this group of immigrants.}},
  author       = {{Kopsch, Fredrik and Zoega, Gylfi and Björnsson, David F.}},
  keywords     = {{Discrimination; labour migration; housing market; field experiment; Iceland}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Working Paper}},
  pages        = {{1--23}},
  publisher    = {{University of Iceland}},
  title        = {{Discrimination in the Housing Market as an Impediment to European Labour Force Integration: The Case of Iceland}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}