TRANSNATIONAL HOUSE: Capital and the production of transnational urban spaces in Toronto and beyond

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’ decisions about real estate and the creation of “home” 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 “ordinary buyers.” 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’ 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’ 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.

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’ 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.

The article co-written with Aurélie Varrel (senior researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research – CNRS), entitled “Iranian and Indian Real Estate Agents in Transnational Migration and Homeownership Projects: Dubai, Istanbul, Toronto,” will be published in Revue européenne 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 « Decentering Migration Studies through Housing Studies », juillet 2025, Paris, France.
• “Transnational Homeownership as an Intermediated Process in Toronto and Istanbul,” paper presented at the BROAD-ER International Conference, Koç University, September 2025.
• Organizer of the special session “Placemaking and Infrastructure for Inclusive Cities: Migration, Housing, and Urban Infrastructure in Canada,” aat the 61st ISOCARP World Planning Congress, Riyadh, December 1–4, 2025,

2024

• Journeys of Transnational Homeownership: Mobilities, Socio-Political Instabilities, and Housing Policy Legacies, International Atelier, avril 2024, University of Neuchâtel, Suisse.
• Disenchanted Homeownership: Integration and Migrant Property in Toronto, International Atelier on Homeownership, Housing & Inequality, décembre 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 Şahin-Mencütek, Anna Triandafyllidou (eds.), Springer, IMISCOE Research Series, pp. 61‑70, (2024), 1 citation. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-55680-7_4 (external link) 

Migration and Cities: Conceptual and Policy Advances, Triandafyllidou, Anna, Amin Moghadam, Melissa Kelly et Zeynep Şahin-Mencütek (éds.), in IMISCOE Research Series, Cham: Springer International Publishing, 3 citations, (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-55680-7 (external link) 

Moghadam, A. (2022). Migrants and their cultural world: When things teach us about lives. In Routledge Handbook of Immigration and Refugee Studies, 2nd ed., 255–64.