Housing Pathways of Immigrants in the City of Athens: From Homelessness to Homeownership. Considering Contextual Factors and Human Agency. Issue 2 (14th March 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Balampanidis, Dimitris
• Is Part Of: Housing, theory and society. Volume 37:Issue 2(2020)
• Page Start: 230
• Page End: 250
• Publication Date: 2020-03-14
• Subjects: Housing pathways -- homelessness -- homeownership -- immigration -- Athens; Housing -- Periodicals; City planning -- Periodicals; Housing -- Economic aspects -- Periodicals; Housing policy -- Periodicals; 363.51
• DOI: 10.1080/14036096.2019.1600016
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1403-6096

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Against the background of the so-called "new immigration" to Greece starting at the beginning of the 1990s, this paper explores the housing experience of immigrants in the city of Athens and reveals housing pathways that have been overlooked or deliberately concealed. Through the processing of data from the Athens Mortgage Office and through interviews with migrant homeowners, it is shown that despite serious difficulties raised against their spatial and social integration, immigrants managed to escape homelessness, gradually upgrade both their housing conditions and occupancy status, and gain access even to homeownership. Special emphasis is given to key factors that allowed immigrants to achieve upward residential mobility and that relate to specific aspects of the local context and to immigrants' individual strategies. Urban space emerges as an "opportunity framework" and immigrants as "active agents" who set up successful housing strategies and reverse the supposedly vicious circle of poverty, delinquency and marginality.