Homescapes: A Lefebvrian Analysis of Iranian Immigrants’ Residential Behavior in Suburban Toronto

Research on immigrant residential behavior has tended to be divided between structural approaches emphasizing housing markets, policy, and discrimination, and cultural-experiential approaches foregrounding preferences, networks, and agency. These orientations operate largely in parallel. We propose Lefebvre’s spatial triad (conceived, perceived, and lived space) as an integrative framework that bridges them by foregrounding the process through which residential space is socially produced: the dialectical interplay of institutional logics, everyday practices, and lived meanings. We demonstrate this framework through the case of established Iranian immigrants in suburban Toronto, Canada, drawing on spatial analysis of 2021 census data, interviews with fifty-four Iranian immigrants and seven real estate agents, and ethnographic observation, and examine how residential space is produced at two scales. At the neighborhood scale, safety, social class, and ethnoracial belonging intersect with school catchments, infrastructure, and ethnic networks to produce distinct “Iranian neighborhoods” in the affluent northern suburbs. At the dwelling scale, cultural imperatives—hospitality, privacy, and aberoo—draw families into engagement with mortgage and investment logics. We argue that these multiscalar patterns are best understood as dialectically produced homescapes. Because the framework captures the process of spatial production rather than predicting a particular outcome, it offers a transferable lens for studying how diverse immigrant groups actively produce (sub)urban space.