IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v372y2025ics0277953625002722.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Housing and wellbeing: Long-term precarious housing trajectories following humanitarian migration and resettlement

Author

Listed:
  • McShane, Sheenagh
  • Li, Ang
  • Block, Karen
  • Bentley, Rebecca

Abstract

Housing experiences upon settlement can shape refugee mental health and wellbeing; however, little is known of how housing precarity evolves as refugees establish their new lives and how it affects their wellbeing. We use longitudinal data (Building a New Life in Australia, n = 2,399) over five years (2013–18) to identify refugee housing trajectories in relation to housing precarity (measured by unaffordability, unsuitability, and insecurity) and mental wellbeing. Using multi-trajectory modelling, two distinct housing trajectories were identified: precariously (12 %) and well-housed (88 %). Precariously housed refugees reported significantly worse mental health (29 % higher risk in psychological distress, (95 %CI: 7 %, 51 %). Being female, financial hardship, low social support, and no support finding housing were risk factors for persistent precarious housing. Benchmarked against national data, the housing circumstances of refugees were less favorable than those of the lowest income quintile Australian population. Findings suggest the need for additional settlement support and access to secure housing to promote refugee wellbeing.

Suggested Citation

  • McShane, Sheenagh & Li, Ang & Block, Karen & Bentley, Rebecca, 2025. "Housing and wellbeing: Long-term precarious housing trajectories following humanitarian migration and resettlement," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 372(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:372:y:2025:i:c:s0277953625002722
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.117943
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953625002722
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.117943?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Li, Ang & Toll, Mathew & Martino, Erika & Wiesel, Ilan & Botha, Ferdi & Bentley, Rebecca, 2023. "Vulnerability and recovery: Long-term mental and physical health trajectories following climate-related disasters," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 320(C).
    2. O'Donnell, Alexander W. & Stuart, Jaimee & O'Donnell, Karlee J., 2020. "The long-term financial and psychological resettlement outcomes of pre-migration trauma and post-settlement difficulties in resettled refugees," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    3. Andrew Beer & Rebecca Bentley & Emma Baker & Kate Mason & Shelley Mallett & Anne Kavanagh & Tony LaMontagne, 2016. "Neoliberalism, economic restructuring and policy change: Precarious housing and precarious employment in Australia," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(8), pages 1542-1558, June.
    4. Ziersch, Anna & Due, Clemence, 2018. "A mixed methods systematic review of studies examining the relationship between housing and health for people from refugee and asylum seeking backgrounds," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 199-219.
    5. Josef Kohlbacher, 2020. "Frustrating Beginnings: How Social Ties Compensate Housing Integration Barriers for Afghan Refugees in Vienna," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(3), pages 127-137.
    6. repec:plo:pmed00:1003337 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Rebecca J. Bentley & David Pevalin & Emma Baker & Kate Mason & Aaron Reeves & Andrew Beer, 2016. "Housing affordability, tenure and mental health in Australia and the United Kingdom: a comparative panel analysis," Housing Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(2), pages 208-222, March.
    8. Anna Ziersch & Moira Walsh & Clemence Due & Emily Duivesteyn, 2017. "Exploring the Relationship between Housing and Health for Refugees and Asylum Seekers in South Australia: A Qualitative Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-20, September.
    9. Josef Kohlbacher, 2020. "Frustrating Beginnings: How Social Ties Compensate Housing Integration Barriers for Afghan Refugees in Vienna," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(3), pages 127-137.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kritika Rana & Andrew Page & Jennifer L. Kent & Amit Arora, 2022. "Pathways Linking Housing Inequalities and Health Outcomes among Migrant and Refugee Populations in High-Income Countries: A Protocol for a Mixed-Methods Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(24), pages 1-12, December.
    2. Amy Clair, 2019. "Housing: an Under-Explored Influence on Children’s Well-Being and Becoming," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 12(2), pages 609-626, April.
    3. Anna Ziersch & Clemence Due & Moira Walsh, 2023. "Housing in Place: Housing, Neighbourhood and Resettlement for People from Refugee and Asylum Seeker Backgrounds in Australia," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 1413-1436, September.
    4. Amber Howard & Ang Li & Rebecca Bentley, 2023. "Parental co-residence and young adults’ mental health," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(11), pages 1-15, November.
    5. Spira, Janelle & Katsampa, Dafni & Wright, Hannah & Komolafe, Kemi, 2025. "The relationship between housing and asylum seekers’ mental health: A systematic review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 368(C).
    6. Weiler, Anelyse M. & Caxaj, C. Susana, 2024. "Housing, health equity, and global capitalist power: Migrant farmworkers in Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 354(C).
    7. Fanny Dellinger, 2021. "Housing Support Policies and Refugees' Labor Market Integration in Austria," Working Papers 2021-32, Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck.
    8. Zihan Kan & Mei-Po Kwan & Mee Kam Ng & Hendrik Tieben, 2022. "The Impacts of Housing Characteristics and Built-Environment Features on Mental Health," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-19, April.
    9. Rachel Ong & Gavin A Wood & Melek Cigdem, 2022. "Housing wealth, mortgages and Australians’ labour force participation in later life," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(4), pages 810-833, March.
    10. Dean R. Lillard, 2021. "Cross‐National Research: Realised and Potential Contributions," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 54(4), pages 542-553, December.
    11. McGinnity, Frances & Privalko, Ivan & Russell, Helen & Curristan, Sarah & Stapleton, Amy & Laurence, James, 2022. "Origin and Integration: Housing and family among migrants in the 2016 Irish Census," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number BKMNEXT422, December.
    12. Lisa Coulburn & Wendy Miller, 2022. "Prevalence, Risk Factors and Impacts Related to Mould-Affected Housing: An Australian Integrative Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-26, February.
    13. Señoret, Andrés & Ramirez, Maria Inés & Rehner, Johannes, 2022. "Employment and sustainability: The relation between precarious work and spatial inequality in the neoliberal city," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    14. Elsenburg, Leonie K. & Nicolaou, Mary & Galenkamp, Henrike & Lakerveld, Jeroen & Stronks, Karien, 2025. "The clustering of disadvantage in different life dimensions across ethnic groups: A network analysis of indicators of precariousness in the HELIUS study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 375(C).
    15. Aarethun, V. & Sandal, G.M. & Guribye, E. & Markova, V. & Bye, H.H., 2021. "Explanatory models and help-seeking for symptoms of PTSD and depression among Syrian refugees," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    16. Phuong Thu Nguyen & Preety Srivastava & Longfeng Ye & Jonathan Boymal, 2022. "Housing and occupant health: Findings from Vietnam," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 164(3), pages 1297-1321, December.
    17. Emma Baker & Andrew Beer & Laurence Lester & David Pevalin & Christine Whitehead & Rebecca Bentley, 2017. "Is Housing a Health Insult?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-18, May.
    18. Hoda Herati & Elena Neiterman & Crystena Parker-Shandal & Samantha B. Meyer, 2023. "Exploring the Determinants that Contribute to and Promote the Wellbeing of Immigrant and Refugee Children in Canada: a Multi-Method Participatory Study," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 16(6), pages 2279-2305, December.
    19. Laura Smith & Ha Hoang & Tamara Reynish & Kim McLeod & Chona Hannah & Stuart Auckland & Shameran Slewa-Younan & Jonathan Mond, 2020. "Factors Shaping the Lived Experience of Resettlement for Former Refugees in Regional Australia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-18, January.
    20. Alan Morris & Andrew Beer & John Martin & Sandy Horne & Catherine Davis & Trevor Budge & Chris Paris, 2020. "Australian local governments and affordable housing: Challenges and possibilities," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 31(1), pages 14-33, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:372:y:2025:i:c:s0277953625002722. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.