A tale of three villages: Local housing policies, well-being and encounters between residents and immigrants

Abstract

This article examines how the location, function and quality of immigrant accommodation facilities, regulated by local housing policies, shape the perceived effects of immigration on the well-being of residents and immigrants in three villages in the Netherlands. Drawing on semistructured interviews with local government representatives, residents and Romanian and Polish immigrants, we show how the different locations of the immigrant accommodations condition social interactions between residents and immigrants and, in this process, reinforce social hierarchies and inequalities. We illustrate how, sometimes unintentionally, spatial policies prepare the stage for conflicts to arise between immigrants and residents, shaping the latter's experiences of migration irrespective of the behaviour of the former. For immigrants, the location of their accommodation sets the limits to what they can do in terms of private behaviour and social relations, exposing them to social control and evaluation.