Immigrant Housing Challenges
Also, several researchers have shown that individual or group immigrant discrimination is based on several factors. This includes race, gender, socioeconomic status, religion, language, and nationality. For example, studies show that immigrant housing experience varies from one individual minority group to another, as dictated by different factors. Some immigrants experience housing segregation as a result of their intersecting minoritized identities. For instance, a Somalian woman may experience housing discrimination due to her status as a Black immigrant Muslim woman.
In another study, Kenneth Dion investigates immigrant housing discrimination, using a method of fair housing audit. Housing audit is the use of audit teams to check the excesses of rental and real estate agents. These audit members include both minority and majority representatives. The audit team's results indicate a less favorable treatment of minority housing seekers than their majority counterparts. This survey shows clear evidence of housing inequality as a result of racial and ethnic prejudice, especially among immigrants. The Black and Hispanic auditors who posed as homebuyers and apartment seekers were shown 25% fewer apartments than the white auditors. Some of these rental agents denied and ignored Black and Hispanic auditors. Dion maintains that racial discrimination is a major factor in immigrants' housing challenges.
In additional research on immigrant housing, Dalia Gonzalez et al. describe the hardship experienced by undocumented immigrants in assessing public housing or fair mortgage for homeownership due to their legal status. In their report, Gonzalez et al. illustrate how housing policies affect immigrant communities regarding homeownership and government housing assistance. The authors note that the department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); and the Federal Housing Authority issued unofficial guidelines that considered Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients unqualified for mortgage approvals in late 2018. Despite the legal protection for DACA recipients to live in the country, they are denied basic rights to own a house. The recipients are denied fair and just mortgages. With this, some housing agencies have considered DACA applicants as unqualified for housing loans.
Also, Monsy Alvardo reports that a Mexican by the name of Fernando Aparico-Rojas was denied access to homeownership because of his DACA status. In the news, Fernando, an undocumented immigrant, was exempted from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival. This program allowed him to work legally as an essential laboratory worker in New York. Fernando has been trying to buy a house for months without success. He claims that all of his offers were rejected because of his DACA status. This is one of the numerous issues of immigrant housing disparity. Fernando claims that his denial is not due to his income or profession but because he is an undocumented immigrant.
Furthermore, according to a 2018 news article in The Washington Post, former president Donald Trump proposed to ban immigrant access to federal housing subsidies. The target victims of this presidential ban were undocumented immigrants in the United States. This act was aimed at rendering many immigrants homeless on the streets of America. As the report reveals, about 32,000 households receiving federal housing subsidies were undocumented residents who would be rendered ineligible for any form of housing benefit. Also, the National Low-income Housing Coalition announced that between 22000 and 25000 households receiving housing assistance are ineligible family members majorly in Texas, California, and New York. As reported in The Washington Post article, undocumented immigrants and their family members in legal status are liable to lose federal housing aid. These discriminatory policies led to family separation and displacement of immigrants during the Trump administration.
It is also worth noting that second and third-generation immigrants experience a slight difference in treatment compared to new immigrants who are easily singled out by their accent through phone calls to rentals or assuming their nationality from their surnames. Housing discrimination also varies based on the geographic location or neighborhood of immigrant settlements in the United States. Immigrants tend to live in areas that are majorly occupied by people with whom they share an ethnic and racial affiliation. These are usually isolated areas or poor neighborhoods with inadequate facilities and a high crime rate.