A paper by Dr Sabina Maslova and Prof Russell King has been published in Cities.
This paper explores the residential trajectories of highly skilled transnational migrants in London. It analyses this under-researched topic by drawing on interview data with 32 mostly Italian and Russian migrants. The paper unveils the motivations of migrant housing preferences and residential behaviour across three interlinked stages: (i) housing expectations and initial housing choices, (ii) residential mobility over the migration period, (iii) future residential and migration plans. Two exogenous factors are brought into the analysis: the high prices in the London housing market, and the potential impact of Brexit on future residential plans. Findings suggest that Italians build multi-stage housing careers with many moves during their stay, yet geared to an upward housing trajectory, whilst the Russians demand high-quality housing from the start, are less inclined to multi-occupancy, and move less often. Part of the explanation for the difference lies in different ‘housing cultures’ brought from the country of origin.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2019.102421