Urban Integration in the City of Kinshasa. A Biographic Analysis of Impact of Employment and Union Formation on Access to First Independent Housing

Pongi Nyuba, Université Catholique de Louvain

Based on biographic data from MAFE-Congo 2009 survey and a competing risk model, this study examines the change over time on access to first independent housing in the city of Kinshasa. The urban population growth in the context of severe economic crisis over the past fifty years results in uncontrolled expansion of the city. During the same time, the contraction of the formal sector, replaced by informal sector as the main provider of employment, is making the urban integration process in the labor market and union formation more difficult for new generations when they enter in adulthood. This study examines the determinants of first independent housing with emphasis on the difference by gender, the activity, the urban mobility and the social network characteristics. The competing risk model highlights two different processes for men and women depending on urban mobility and centered on employment and the access to the labor market.