It was in a Toronto Fitness Centre locker room that a local University prof spilled the ugly beans to Affordablehousingaction.org about citizen self-protective(?) behaviour.
“Immigrants are only pro-immigration until they get it in. After that, they’re happy to bar the national doors.”
As an immigrant himself, specializing in immigration issues, this professor was in a good position to identify this kind of perhaps unexpected behaviour1.
What’s this got to do with housing? Well, governments seem prone to assume that individual aspirations (immigrant desire to become a citizen) result in a mass inspiration (former immigrants support more immigration). In the case of housing, this should mean that an individual’s aspiration (the desire to own a house) results in a mass inspiration (everyone should own a house)?
For better or worse, consider the ‘Canadian National Dream’ of home ownership. Should we automatically extend our understanding of this personal aspiration to consider it a collective national inspiration of what’s best for all?
“Of course I want to own a home, so I believe everyone should own one, too.”
By assigning this questionable attitude to an entire class of people (homeowners — who make up 67% of all households), a government seeking re-election might promote a home ownership policy, including financial support. Only, the policy doesn’t reflect what homeowners as a class actually want.
So is there any evidence that such a fallacious presumption about home ownership exists? Here’s a possible example that has shown up in the United Kingdom. First, take a short hop, skip and jump to assume that virtually all Conservative Party voters are homeowners. Now consider the results of a recent survey which may come as something of a surprise. Read more from the National Housing Federation: Conservative voters support building social housing over homes for sale
Hello there, Canadian Government, still pouring the lion’s share of government assistance first and foremost into into home ownership. That’s because it’s assumed it’s what everybody wants everybody else to have.
But there’s increasing evidence that ‘everybody’ is more concerned by an ever-deepened shelter crisis in which any form of roof over the head, not just a home ownership roof, is slipping out of reach for too many. Please get more serious about affordable housing of any kind, including social housing!
Footnotes
- These days, the United Kingdom provides examples that it’s a mistake to assume recent immigrants favour newcomers. First and second generation immigrants have recently risen to positions of great power in the UK government, occupying positions that control national immigration. These ‘New Brits’ are not showing favouritism towards aspirants from abroad who are hoping for UK citizenship. Quite the contrary, in fact. Try Think Priti Patel was bad? Suella Braverman wants to make claiming asylum near-impossible
