Access to Adequate Housing and Differential Factors According to the Nationalities of Immigrants in Three Countries and Five Host Cities in Latin America

Gabriela Cabezas Galvez, Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, FLACSO
José Luis Guadalajara Mendoza, El Colegio de Mexico COLMEX
Miroslava Godínez Trejo, Universidad Rosario Castellanos

The disadvantaged situations with each migrant have in reception places pose important challenges for achieving satisfactory living conditions. This paper presents a comparative study between three immigrant communities (Venezuelans, Haitians and Nicaraguans) in five cities in three host countries (Chile, Colombia and Costa Rica). At first, the differences between groups of immigrants are explored in the material conditions of the living spaces in the first year after their arrival in the host country. In a second moment, the material conditions of the last home are compared, analyzing whether or not access to adequate housing, and the associated variables. The material conditions are assessed based on an 'adequate housing' index, which includes types of housing, construction materials of the living spaces, access to basic services, and the assets available at home. Sociodemographic explanatory variables are explored (age, sex, education, marital status, household size); economic (employment situation, income, savings), length of residence, and the social networks they have. The source for the analysis is the Ethnosurvey of Recent Immigration in Latin American Reception Contexts (LAMP-ENIR 2021), which allows exploring the differences in the integration processes of recent immigrants, in this case from the material conditions of the housing spaces of immigrant people.

Keywords: International Migration

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