School choices, residential mobility, and the (re)production of school segregation

This 4-year project examines how school segregation and residential segregation are interrelated in Sweden.

More specifically, we ask how the residential choices parents make for their families are affected by characteristics of nearby schools, and how these, in turn, affect school segregation. The project consists of three sub-studies, all using register data. First, we will analyze to what extent parents’ residential choices are driven by characteristics of nearby schools.

Second, we will study to what extent school characteristics of children are differentiated by (forced) residential mobility events.

Third, we will use simulations to determine how school segregation varies under different patterns of residential choices.The project is one of the first to explicitly study how socioeconomic and ethnic school segregation impacts residential choices, and how this, in turn, affects future school segregation.

Understanding the interrelation between these social spheres has important implications for housing, schooling, and income inequality.

The project will help us understand to what extent new school admission rules can have lasting effects on the levels of school segregation, or if the housing market is more important.

The research team consists of sociologists and demographers with solid experience of research on school segregation, residential mobility, register data, and the advanced statistical tools needed to examine such complex interrelations.