Abstract/Summary

Migration has remained a significant global concern which has engendered sentiments from international organisations, policy makers, scholars, the media and the citizenry; and housing is one of the major components of the migration-related debates. Some of the migration and housing-related debates are however based on anecdotal arguments rather than being evidence-based. This thesis therefore aims to expand the frontiers of the migration debate by providing evidence-based insight on the migration phenomenon and spotlighting its effects on the housing market. This research begins by developing a gravity framework to test the resistance of global migration to the economic forces of gravity. Next, the study examines the potential links between migration policy changes and housing market shocks. A theoretical framework is developed to capture these potential effects, and the framework is tested using different empirical approaches and methods. The empirical analysis concludes with a comparison of the housing tenure outcomes of natives and generations of non-natives which improves insight on the variation in the housing patterns of natives and non-natives. The primary study areas in this thesis provide insight on migration and the housing market which can significantly improve the quality of the on-going migration-related debates and policy formulation. The findings in this research confirm that the economic force of gravity is a key driver of global migration flow. This implies that there is a need to address global inequality in order to minimise the unhealthy pace of migration flow from developing countries to developed countries, particularly when these developed countries are surrounded by developing countries. The research also reveals that migration restrictions do not necessarily imply adverse impact for immigrants, rather the restrictive migration policy framework provides a sustainable basis for the selection of immigrants of higher socio-economic status which makes them more likely to make a faster transition on the housing ladder compared to immigrants in a more liberalised migration framework. The restrictive framework also has the potential to increase the prospects of social and economic integration of immigrant.