TRANSNATIONAL HOUSE: Capital and the production of transnational urban spaces in Toronto and beyond
Team Members
Funders
Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and Integration
Description
For many migrants, homeownership is a key marker of social and economic integration and often involves higher levels of investment and risk than for host populations. As transnational actors, migrants鈥 decisions about real estate and the creation of 鈥渉ome鈥 shape social status, long-term welfare, and the transformation of urban spaces, while cities increasingly compete for immigrant capital through internationalized housing markets and policies. This project examines, from a transnational perspective, homeownership practices and representations among middle-class migrants from the Global South, whether they are already homeowners or aspiring to become so, and who are identified as 鈥渙rdinary buyers.鈥 The study focuses on foreign-born individuals residing in the cities of Toronto and Istanbul, encompassing a diversity of legal statuses (temporary residents, permanent residents, or naturalized citizens), and situates these experiences in relation to migrants鈥 broader migration trajectories at the intersection of urban and immigration policies. Particular attention is paid to migrants originating from countries recently marked by acute economic and political instability, such as Iran, Lebanon, Iraq, Pakistan, and Algeria. By linking a transnational analysis of migrants鈥 homeownership trajectories to the housing and immigration policies of host countries and cities, this project aims to shed light on how the circulation of people and capital from the Global South contributes to shaping new socio-spatial configurations in cities of the Global North and other advanced economies. This comparative and interdisciplinary research lies at the intersection of migration studies, housing studies, and urban studies, and contributes to critical debates on the interconnections between transnational mobilities, public policies, and real estate dynamics.
Methodologies
This project involves an ethnographic account of real estate investment and home ownership practices using qualitative interviews with both migrants and real estate intermediary actors such as real estate agents and mortgage experts. The project uses quantitative data on housing, home ownership and real estate investment according to residents鈥 status, country of origin, housing types, housing prices and geographical locations. The project also pays particular attention to the types of interior and exterior architecture favoured by migrants for their investments by conducting a photographic survey which explores new aesthetic values.

Project Outcomes
The article co-written with Aur茅lie Varrel (senior researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research 鈥 CNRS), entitled 鈥淚ranian and Indian Real Estate Agents in Transnational Migration and Homeownership Projects: Dubai, Istanbul, Toronto,鈥 will be published in Revue europ茅enne des migrations internationales in September 2026.
Additional articles on the same topic are currently under revision for peer-reviewed journals.
Conferences
2025
- Emotional and Social Dynamics of Homeownership among Migrants: A Case Study of the Iranian Community in Toronto, IMISCOE Conference, Panel 芦 Decentering Migration Studies through Housing Studies 禄, juillet 2025, Paris, France.
- 鈥淭ransnational Homeownership as an Intermediated Process in Toronto and Istanbul,鈥 paper presented at the BROAD-ER International Conference, Ko莽 University, September 2025.
- Organizer of the special session 鈥淧lacemaking and Infrastructure for Inclusive Cities: Migration, Housing, and Urban Infrastructure in Canada,鈥 aat the 61st ISOCARP World Planning Congress, Riyadh, December 1鈥4, 2025,
2024
- Journeys of Transnational Homeownership: Mobilities, Socio-Political Instabilities, and Housing Policy Legacies, International Atelier, avril 2024, University of Neuch芒tel, Suisse.
- Disenchanted Homeownership: Integration and Migrant Property in Toronto, International Atelier on Homeownership, Housing & Inequality, d茅cembre 2024, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg.
Publications
Urban Diversity and Spatial Justice: A Critical Overview, Moghadam, Amin, in Migration and Cities: Conceptual and Policy Advances, Melissa Kelly, Amin Moghadam, Zeynep 艦ahin-Menc眉tek, Anna Triandafyllidou (eds.), Springer, IMISCOE Research Series, pp.鈥61鈥70, (2024), 1 citation.
Migration and Cities: Conceptual and Policy Advances, Triandafyllidou, Anna, Amin Moghadam, Melissa Kelly et Zeynep 艦ahin-Menc眉tek (茅ds.), in IMISCOE Research Series, Cham: Springer International Publishing, 3 citations, (2024).
Moghadam, A. (2022). Migrants and their cultural world: When things teach us about lives. In Routledge Handbook of Immigration and Refugee Studies, 2nd ed., 255鈥64.