EMIGRE CITY ‐ MAKING : The Micropolitics of Diasporic Real Estate Investment and Urban Growth in Pakistan

Source abstract

Abstract Contemporary cities in the global South are being reshaped through the intersecting logics of burgeoning real estate sectors and diasporic investment. This article examines the case of Pakistan to explore how emigration trajectories and remittance practices contribute to the transformation of urban landscapes in countries of origin through processes of emigre city‐making. Over the past few decades, the neoliberalizing real estate sector has aligned with shifts in the investment practices of elite emigrants, redirecting remittances from home‐building—once intended for eventual return—to speculative investments in urban real estate. These investments are part of broader, multi‐sited transnational strategies aimed at supporting permanent settlement in North Atlantic countries. Often made during presales, these speculative purchases and accompanying risk‐mitigation strategies help to create a niche market for vacant land, particularly in developments led by the military and its allies. These investments contribute to urbanization in major, second‐tier and emerging cities through low density suburban gated communities. By tracing the logics of such investments, this article sheds light on alternative trajectories of transnational urbanism and neoliberalization, illustrating how land and housing financialization unfolds in postcolonial cities through global flows of non‐corporate private capital, rather than institutional transnational capital and well‐developed financial markets.