Resilience and housing choices among Filipino immigrants in Toronto

Abstract

In Canada, where immigration plays a major role in population growth, immigrants’ housing choices and settlement patterns have been extensively researched. Using a case study of Filipino immigrants in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area, this paper demonstrates that choices such as affordable rental housing may contribute to flexibility and mobility in increasingly competitive labour and housing markets. The study, using descriptive statistics from Census data and interviews with Filipino immigrants, found that structural changes in immigration, housing and labour market policy over the past few decades have affected immigrants’ housing choices. These structural changes, combined with Filipinos’ resilience strategies, have resulted in housing patterns that are responsive to constantly changing household and labour market characteristics.

Keywords:

• rental housing
• affordability
• transportation
• housing policy
• immigrants
• Canada

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank Penny Gurstein, Tom Hutton and Elvin Wyly; and also the editors and anonymous reviewers whose suggestions strengthened this article. This study was funded by a Doctoral Fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.