Entangling housing and migration politics: private sector narratives in the context of housing crises

Abstract

This paper interrogates how private sector actors construct and mobilize migration narratives as part of market-making practices in contemporary urban housing systems. Using a performativity framework (cf. Callon, 1998a, Robin, 2022), we analyze how real estate actors generate and circulate narratives and imagery that produce a sense of urgency around housing provision. We argue that such narratives do more than reflect market conditions, they actively shape them with two core consequences. First, they reinscribe private sector logics within housing delivery, positioning real estate actors as indispensable solutions to perceived crises. Second, they unevenly and selectively enroll migration narratives into the housing market, indirectly politicizing migration through the domain of housing governance, rather than through migration policy. We make this argument through the case of Swiss real estate actors, primarily operating in Zurich. The paper contributes to debates in geography by highlighting how private sector narrative operationalization functions as a mechanism of urban politics, linking market formation, migration discourse, and the reconfiguration of state–market relations in the production of housing.

Keywords: Real estate actors; Housing crisis; Migration narratives; Framing; Zurich