Migrants and Housing
Barriers against social inclusion
Brussels, 4 December 2014 | Social
Housing one of the sectors where migrants find barriers to inclusion according to the latest Eurodiaconia report.
Eurodiaconia has published the report ‘Access to social and health services for migrants in Europe: overcoming the barriers’. According to it housing is one example where administrative barriers often exclude migrants as well as growing xenophobia among landlords.
For instance Eurodiaconia members from Italy, Sweden and the Czech Republic, have stressed that many migrants they encounter in their services struggle with finding appropriate housing.
'Before being able to rent a flat or room, a migrant must often show proof of their legal status in a particular country to a landlord or housing assistance official, which is difficult to prove for many migrants who go through long processes with authorities to determine their official status.’
Read MoreThere have also been reports from the UK of landlords ‘openly discriminating against migrants and refusing to rent to people who they think could be of a migrant background, sometimes basing their rejection solely on the surname of the person.’
Housing Europe has tackled the issue of housing for migrants in a number of publications and meetings.
* For or ideas and good practices from the social housing sector please contact Alice Pittini
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