Migrant-owned Homes as Land Grabs: Interrogating the Dynamics and Effects of Diasporic Property Investment

Zoomers (2010) names migrant ownership as one of several processes of land grabbing that create complex and radical changes in the social order of land use. The research she cites on this issue, however, is woefully thin.... [ view full abstract ]

Zoomers (2010) names migrant ownership as one of several processes of land grabbing that create complex and radical changes in the social order of land use. The research she cites on this issue, however, is woefully thin. Given that diasporic purchasing of land and housing are often individual, small-scale, and as geographically dispersed as the origination points of migrants themselves, the cumulative impact of many diasporic owners can be difficult to empirically assess. Researchers in many sites worldwide have noted the visual impact of the ‘migrant house’ as an eyesore in the rural landscape, but my previous fieldwork shows that these ‘remittance houses’ are not the only form of migrant home ownership. Post-migrant generations are also investing in second homes and vacation homes – often less blatantly visible, but possibly more impactful on local residents as they drive up housing prices with diasporic demand.

This paper aggregates various research on diasporic home ownership in a country of origin, using the case of Tangier, Morocco as a reference point, to consider how infrastructures and practices encouraging migrants to purchase land or housing in their countries of origin contribute to pressure on local housing markets. With a complex history of property regulation and a strategic geopolitical and touristic position, Tangier provides both a unique and archetypical case for thinking about how property owners from elsewhere become present and immanent in the life of a city, even as their dynamics of ownership may necessitate that they are more often absent than present there.