Institute for the Study of Societal Issues

Contrary to much of the literature on immigrant homeownership, I argue that the comparatively high rate of homeownership amongst Filipinos, coupled with their tendency to live in suburbs, can only be partially explained as an attempt to create and accumulate capital and assimilate within the dominant fabric of American culture. More often, Filipinos utilize homeownership as a way of performing citizenship and signaling their belonging in the U.S. nation. I argue that the idea of the “America Dream” and the liberal meanings constituting property ownership, produces a cultural logic through which Filipinos attempt to claim full-citizenship in the U.S. Through in-depth interviews of Filipino realtors and their clients operating and settling in the Californian suburb of Daly City, I describe how middle-class enactments, such as investments in the American Dream and the production and consumption of status, together reflect strategies that Filipinos utilize in order to navigate within the differentiating effect of U.S. citizenship.