Impact of Out-of-Home Activities on Experienced Segregation

Determine the net impact of individuals’ day-to-day out-of-home activities (such as visiting shops, restaurants, workplaces, and leisure venues) on experienced segregation between native-born and foreign-born populations, clarifying whether such activities promote social mixing or reinforce residential segregation patterns.

Background

Recent work using smartphone data shows that segregation extends beyond residential areas into places people visit daily, but empirical findings are mixed. Some studies report greater mixing outside the home, while others find that mobility reinforces segregation. The authors note that, despite the growing literature, the overall impact of everyday activities on segregation has not been definitively established.

This uncertainty motivates the paper’s analysis of experienced segregation in Sweden, using large-scale smartphone trajectories to compare native-born and foreign-born individuals and to assess how mobility shapes their exposure to different groups.