A Critical Literature Review of Housing and Migration: Understanding Causality, Cohesion and Citizenship

Abstract

As housing and migration are increasingly emerging as key global concerns in the 21st century, this article offers an in-depth evaluation and synthesis of existing research at the intersection between housing and migration. Through a detailed critical review of discipline-specific approaches in sociological, political and economic traditions, the article assesses the strengths, weaknesses and gaps in extant literature to challenge and define underlying assumptions and approaches to analysis. The article argues that the debates surrounding migration have been under-theorised in the housing literature and that, despite some exceptions, the general literature in migration studies has tended to underplay the importance of housing. Moreover, studies which have been undertaken within housing research can be criticised on grounds of being aspatial, ahistorical and/or apolitical. This critical review identifies cross-cutting themes of causality, cohesion and citizenship as areas for further development and argues that future housing and migration research studies should have a more solid theoretical foundation, which can offer opportunities for more effective, engaged scholarship.