Ethnic Perceptual Differences of Housing and Neighbourhood Quality in Mixed Arab—Jewish Cities in Israel

Over the period of March—May 1991, 1170 Arab and Jewish households in five ethnically mixed Arab—Jewish cities in Israel were surveyed. This fieldwork has involved the delivery of two questionnaires, on the basis of which generalisation for this paper became possible. From the analysis of data pertaining to people's assessment of life quality in their residential environment, that is housing and neighbourhood, perceptual differences between the Arab households and the Jewish households seem to vary along a scale of spatial ethnic mixing and from city to city. The Jews appear more satisfied or happy than the Arabs in general and especially at the city level, but such differences are not always statistically significant. Evidence of less satisfied Jewish households, most notably with regard to their neighbourhood, was uncovered and was associated with the increase in the size of the Arab population in these city subareas. This evidence and that of a similar degree of ‘happiness' (or overlapping scores) emerged once the city subarea became the scale of analysis and once areas were grouped into various ranges of ethnic mixing. Shortages of housing in Arab areas and poor service provisions from the local government seem to structure the order of Arab household basic needs and thus inform their satisfaction priorities and levels.