Browsing by Subject "housing market"

Finnish society is rapidly becoming more diverse, which is also reflected in the housing preferences and choices. A growing group in the Finnish housing market is the children of immigrants also known as the second-generation. Second-generation successes and challenges in integrating into society have been a hot topic around Europe including in Finland. Despite the groups growing presence a little is known about their housing preferences or choices especially in the case of Finland. This thesis aims to study the housing preferences and choices of second-generation Somalis in Helsinki. The data of this research is based on fifteen semi-structured interviews of young second-generation Somalis between the ages of 25 and 29 and statistical data received from the City of Helsinki and Stat Finland that was visualized into thematic maps demonstrating the spatial distribution of Somali-speakers in Helsinki. This thesis is a part of the Helsinki Institute of Urban Regional Studies’s (Urbaria) project Housing& Migrants Immigrants, spatial capital, and urban housing diversity: A comparative study of non-native population groups in the Helsinki metropolitan area. The findings of this study highlighted how culture and religion affects the housing preferences and choices of second-generation Somalis and how this group is positioned between different cultural norms. The values of the interviewees are indicative of an ongoing assimilation process; however, the remaining importance of culture and religion prevents the full integration to Finnish housing culture. This is especially visible in relation to homeownership, which is a desired form of tenure for many but deemed as impossible to pursue in the current Finnish housing market as there are no Sharia-compliant mortgage options. Furthermore, the findings emphasized that the perception about the possibility of fulfilling one’s housing preferences had a major impact on the sense of belonging among the interviewees and the desire to build a life in Finland.