The housing wealth experiences of ethnic minority home owners is relatively unexplored within the UK literature. This thesis makes a contribution to this field by exploring the experiences of African Caribbean post war families. There are a number of original points of departure to this literature that this study makes. Links are made with Caribbean migration and social anthropology literatures in developing fresh perspectives on the study of housing wealth among this group. The study avoids treating housing wealth in isolation from other networks within African Caribbean communities. Instead it develops a single asset network that positions housing wealth within a broader resource framework used to interpret home ownership careers and return migration planning. The study incorporates literature drawn from cultural consumption theory in exploring values and meanings attached to inheritances in the UK and Caribbean. An original methodological contribution is made in the use of life history methods in exploring consumption and transmission of housing wealth across two generations of the same family. The 13 families included in the study are drawn from Birmingham and London. The findings suggest that there is a complex interaction of networks used throughout home ownership careers. Informal financial networks in the form of intergenerational exchanges are used in supporting younger family members at the start of home ownership careers. There is evidence that inheritance of 'family land' in the Caribbean provided a focus for the investment of UK housing wealth to facilitate return migration. Other forms of housing wealth leakage took place, with evidence of investments in second homes in the Caribbean, kinship networks and entrepreneurial activity. This investment of UK housing assets in second homes across the Caribbean region suggests the creation of 'transnational housing markets'.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:489584 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Joseph, Ricky |
| Publisher | University of Birmingham |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/39/ |
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