Clara H. Mulder

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The family context and residential choice A
challenge for new research

• Clara H. Mulder
• University of Amsterdam / AMIDSt

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Aim

• Presenting a research agenda
• Includes a concrete five-year programme carried
  out together with Francesca Michielin, Annika
  Smits, Aslan Zorlu and Marjolein Blaauboer
• Funding Netherlands Organisation for Scientific
  Research (NWO)

3
Definitions

• Migration
• Long-distance changes of residence involving a
  change in daily activity space (internal
  international)

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Definitions

• Residential choice
• Choice of (or behaviour with respect to)
  location and housing quality (including housing
  tenure)

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Definitions

• Family context
• Relations with family, both inside and outside
  the household (residential locations /
  geographical distance, contact, support)

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Aim of the research

• Investigating the influence of the family context
  on migration and residential choice of households
  and the feedback of these choices to (ethnic)
  segregation

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Why important in western countries

• Family still paramount
• Inter-generational transfers (increase?)
• Non-western immigrants
• Growing fluidity of nuclear families and
  households

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Why neglected so far

• First things first other innovations in
  migration / residential choice research
• Life-course approach, hazard analysis
• Family migration (focus nuclear family)
• Inclusion of the macro context
• Data requirements are huge

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Research challenges

• Family context and housing quality
• Family context and residential location
• Family attitudes and residential location
• Family context and segregation

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Family context and housing quality

• Previous research inter-generational
  transmission of home-ownership
• New extension to What are the mechanisms
  Does home-ownership run in families Does
  housing quality run in families

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Family context and residential location

• Previous research scarce some British and
  North American work on (changes in) distances
  between parents and children
• New extension to Children moving towards
  parents Other family members family networks
  Role of the family in residential inertia

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Family attitudes and residential location

• Previous research location attitudes towards
  (nuclear) family versus work
• New extension to Longitudinal approach (what
  comes first) Location/relocation
  attitudes/norms towards family

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Family context and segregation

• Previous research role of co-ethnics in
  location choice of immigrants upon arrival
• New extension to Role of family in (see
  above) Role of family in subsequent
  relocations Feedback to segregation

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Theory

• The family as a keep factor / trigger for moving
• Family solidarity (obligation actual support)
• Location-specific capital

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Theory

• The family as a source of resources
• Inter-generational transfers
• Transmission of socioeconomic status

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Theory

• The family as a socialization agent
• Preference for at least the same quality of life
  (compare Easterlin)
• Familiarity with location / type of location
• Deliberate propagation by parents (e.g. of
  homeownership)

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Theory

• Proximity to family as a by-product
• Housing careers start from parental home
• Inertia / principle of least effort moves tend
  to be short-distance
• Determinants of migration are also determinants
  of long distance
• Degree of urbanization city dwellers are more
  likely to have moved

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Data requirements

• Data should
• - Include locations (not just distance!) and
  relocations of family members plus background
  characteristics
• Include as many observations as possible (rare
  events family context just one determinant
  among many, among which some are likely more
  important)
• Preferably be longitudinal

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Data availability

• Sample surveys
• - France Enquete Biographies et Entourage (Event
  Histories and Contact Circle)
• Netherlands Kinship Panel Study (Wave 1
  available Wave 2 to be collected from September
  2006)

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Data availability

• Register data
• Sweden, Denmark, Norway (on-site analysis of
  whole population possible)
• Finland (off-site analysis of 10 sample)
• Netherlands Social-Statistical Database
  (on-site, whole population). Brand-new!
  Parent-child links are now available

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Results

• Mainly
• ???

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Results

• Inter-generational transmission of
  home-ownership as much caused by similarity in
  housing-market characteristics as by direct
  transfers (NKPS Helderman Mulder, forthcoming
  in Urban Studies)

23
Results

• Distance to family members associated with level
  of education (), age (), degree of urbanization
  (), being foreign born (-, at least within the
  Netherlands) (NKPS Mulder Kalmijn)

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Results

• and also with being an only child (-), siblings
  close to parents (-), having left home early (),
  early labour market entry (-), early
  home-ownership (-), gifts from parents (-) (NKPS
  Michielin Mulder, in progress)

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Results

• Older people do seem to move towards their
  children, particularly if they have grandchildren
  (not so much if they are older living alone
  have health problems) (NKPS Van Diepen Mulder,
  submitted to Tijdschrift voor Sociologie)

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Results

• Younger and middle aged no significant
  difference between moving away and moving towards
  family Possibly sample size problem (NKPS). To
  be continued with Social Statistical Database
  (Michielin)

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Conclusion

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Conclusion

• More work to be done