Exploring housing careers among Ghanaians in Toronto, Canada

Abstract

The argument that a successful housing career plays an important role in the immigrant integration process has been well established in the literature. Most studies on immigrant housing career do so without reference to the housing situation of immigrants in their homeland. Since housing career relates to sequence of dwellings people occupy throughout their life-course, an analysis of immigrants housing career should also begin with immigrants housing situation in the homeland. Unless we understand the sequence of dwellings that immigrants occupy throughout their life course in both the country of origin and host society, we will fail to fully comprehend dynamics of their housing career over their life-course. Using mixed method, this study illustrates the role of housing career in the integration process of Ghanaians in Toronto in the Canadian society. The study adds to the housing career literature by capturing the sequence of dwelling that immigrants occupy throughout their life course in both the country of origin and destination country.

Keywords:

• Ghanaians
• housing career
• immigrants
• settlement and integration

Notes

1. Housing career is a term used to describe the way in which households change their housing consumption as they move through the life course. In simple terms it refers to ‘the succession of dwellings occupied by individuals over their life-course’ (Kendig, 1990, p. 133).

2. A simple index of concentration for the 60 top ethnic groups in Toronto, extrapolated from LIDS by Murdie, (2010) shows that Ghanaians rank among the top 10 most spatially concentrated ethnic group in Toronto, suggesting that they reside in ethnic enclaves in Toronto.

3. Statistics Canada defines a census metropolitan area (CMA) as ‘a very large urban area, together with adjacent urban and rural areas which have a high degree of economic and social integration with that urban area.’ A CMA is delineated around an urban area called the urban core and has a population of at least 100,000.

4. CIC’s LIDS (annual data) and census data (at five- or ten-year intervals, from 1971 to 2011) provide information on immigrant flows from Ghana to intended destination within Canada as well as the characteristics of Ghanaian immigrants in Canada. These data sets were useful to construct an extensive socio-demographic profile for various ethnic groups in Toronto, including Ghanaians. A few years ago the name of LIDS was changed to PRDS (Permanent Resident Data System).

5. Actually, 200 Ghanaians were approached to participate in the study. However, 150 respondents actually participated. The sample size for the study was determined by means of a G*power statistical software. The sample size of 150 was considered reasonably powerful for statistical analysis. Since the survey requires a power of 0.85 to detect a minimum effect size (at 0.05 level of significance), it turns out that, a minimum sample size of 137 is sufficient for the study. It was estimated that there are about 30 Ghanaian churches and 25 Ghanaian hometown associations in Toronto. The churches have an average of 500 members each, while the hometown associations have an average of 100 members each.

6. The numbers under variable Reasons for moving to Current Residence represent the percentage of respondents selecting each reason as first, second, or third choice. The Total column sums up the percentage of respondents citing each reason regardless of the importance they attach to that reason.