Abstract

Contrary to the prevailing literature on immigrant homeownership, I argue that the high rate of homeownership amongst Filipinos, coupled with their tendency to live in suburbs, can only be partially explained as an attempt to produce capital and assimilate within American culture. Just as significant are the ways in which Filipinos utilize homeownership as a means of performing citizenship and signaling their belonging in the U.S. nation. Through in-depth interviews of Filipino realtors and their clients in the Californian suburb of Daly City, I describe how various middle-class enactments reflect a larger cultural logic used to navigate within the differentiating effect of U.S. citizenship.

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