People with Arab names face discrimination in Swedish housing market

Study finds potential tenants with eastern European, Asian or Middle-Eastern names are less likely to get a response

Muslims greet each other after performing Eid Al Fitr prayer at Fittja Mosque in Stockholm. A study found people with Arabic-sounding names faced discrimination in the Swedish housing market. Getty

Rental seekers with foreign-sounding names get fewer call-backs from landlords, while those with Arabic or Middle-Eastern-sounding names suffering particular discrimination, a study found.

Researchers sent fictitious applications to 620 housing advertisements using stereotypical male names that suggest a specific ethnicity.

Researchers said the report was commissioned to find out how a troubled housing market, combined with a rapid increase in immigration in the past 20 years, affected an immigrant's ability to rent an apartment in Sweden.

Previous research suggested those with Arab or names that sounded Middle Eastern, were less likely than Swedes to be accepted. In the latest research, by the University of Gothenburg, eastern European and Asian names were included alongside names that signal Swedish ethnicity, but Middle-Eastern names again suffered the most discrimination.

One of the study's authors, Dr Elina Lampi, told The National "this result is despite the fact that all applicants were equally well behaved, highly educated persons with good jobs and a steady income, ie, it is the name that matters".

Dr Lampi said the names used were chosen based on the most common names according to Statistics Sweden, the official government statistics agency.

The names were Johan Andersson, which signals a Swedish background, Ali Hassan, which suggests an Arab-Muslim background, Milan Mladenovic, which points to an Eastern European background, and Yong Wang, which signals an East Asian background.

The call-back rates from landlords were 39 per cent for Johan, 23 per cent for Ali, and 31 per cent for Milan and Yong.

Dr Lambi said: "Although we expected a certain amount of discrimination, we did not expect that discrimination towards the Arabic/Muslim-sounding name would be that much greater than discrimination towards people with Eastern European and East Asian-sounding names."

The researchers compared these results with earlier research conducted in Sweden, finding that the Swedish housing market has not improved over the past decade for applicants with Arabic/Muslim-sounding names.

The largest immigrant groups in Sweden (excluding people from the other Nordic countries) are immigrants from Asia (37 per cent) and EU countries (32 per cent), followed by immigrants from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Syria (23 per cent). About 9 per cent of all immigrants living in Sweden today originate from Eastern European countries outside the EU.

These findings could help inform efforts to reduce housing discrimination in Sweden. Further research could investigate discrimination against female rental seekers as well as focus on possible discrimination in the healthcare sector.