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Immigrants' neighbourhood choices are key to understanding today's dominant socio-territorial dynamics, especially in urban areas. We analysed the factors involved in the housing search at the early stages of the economic migrant influx in Seville, Spain (Andalusia region, Europe's southern border) and their impact on the development of residential segregation in this city. Using a qualitative methodology approach based on focus groups, unstructured interviews and discourse analysis, the implicit and explicit social determinants that influence economic migrants' residential behaviours were examined. In line with previous studies, the results highlight the importance of socio-economic determinants and a trend towards self-segregation. Social discourse analysis reveals how the host society's ethnoracial preferences and prejudices – from the outset of the economic migrant influx – translate into barriers to accessing the housing market, which plays a crucial role in understanding economic migrant residential mobility and its impact on and consequences for the residential segregation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]