For immigrants who arrived 20 years ago, Canada offered a path from modest beginnings to homeownership. Today’s newcomers face a different housing market. The old immigrant success story deserves another look.
I was reading the comments beneath a YouTube video by Kashif in Canada when one account caught my attention. A man who migrated 26 years ago described how he avoided the financial traps that now worry newcomers. He rented a small studio apartment, bought a second-hand car and gradually built enough wealth to purchase a three-bedroom house with cash.
Another viewer had been in Canada for only two years. He came from the Middle East and said the country was nothing like he had imagined.
The contrast interested me more than the video’s provocative title, You Own Nothing in Canada. Both men had moved to a country that promised opportunity. One described the rewards of patience, while the other spoke of disappointment.
My brother-in-law has lived in Calgary for more than 20 years. He and his wife are Canadian citizens, and two of their children were born there. His experience has made Canada more than a distant immigration destination in my family, although I would not presume to describe his finances.
I have also noticed something about his approach to immigrant life. He makes an effort to build relationships with Canadian families rather than confining his social world to people from his own community. I consider that important because settling in another country involves more than finding employment.
Still, personal discipline cannot explain everything. A family arriving in Calgary in the early 2000s entered a housing market very different from the one facing a family arriving in 2026.
What the Older Immigrants Had
Canada was never an easy country for newcomers. Immigrants struggled to find suitable jobs long before today’s affordability crisis, and many spent their early years renting crowded accommodation.
What changed was the relationship between earnings and the cost of getting established.
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation has traced the deterioration of housing affordability over two decades. In Calgary, the cost of buying and maintaining an average-priced home rose from 26.9% of typical monthly income in 2004 to 34.5% in 2023, under CMHC’s measure.
Ottawa tells an equally revealing story. In 2004, 86.9% of homes for sale were attainable to people earning the city’s median income under CMHC’s measure. By 2023, that proportion had fallen to 26%.
Source: CMHC, The Way Back to Housing Affordability (2025).
Consider what those changes mean for a newcomer.
An immigrant who bought a reasonably priced house years ago could gradually reduce the mortgage while the property gained value. Someone arriving today must first accumulate a down payment while paying rent in a market where ownership may already be beyond reach.
The older homeowner benefits from years of accumulated equity. The newcomer must find a way to enter the market at today’s prices.
Both may work equally hard. Their financial outcomes can differ because they started at different points in the housing cycle.
There is an uncomfortable implication here. What looks like superior financial discipline may sometimes reflect the advantage of having entered the market earlier.
The Wealth Gap Is Real, but It Has a History
Statistics Canada published a study in March 2026 that helps explain the divide.
In 2023, recent immigrant families had a median net worth of C$132,300, compared with C$293,900 for Canadian-born families at a comparable stage of life.
Established immigrant families presented a different picture. Their median net worth reached C$751,500, compared with C$608,400 among Canadian-born families in the study’s older age group.
These figures compare different age groups, so they must not be read as a single generation moving from one wealth level to another.
The research makes two things clear. New immigrants generally possess less wealth, while many established immigrants have built substantial assets over time. Housing equity accounts for much of that wealth.
Canada’s immigrant wealth story has not disappeared.
But a family that already owns property is in a different position from one trying to purchase its first home. The existing owner can benefit from rising property values, while those same increases make entry more expensive for people outside the market.
That is the contradiction I find important.
A Good Salary Does Not Always Build Wealth
Kashif argues that many immigrants become trapped in monthly payments. They earn Canadian dollars but spend most of their income on housing and other necessities.
His warning has merit, although he takes it too far when he suggests that people with mortgages do not really own their homes.
A mortgaged property generally belongs to the homeowner, subject to the lender’s security interest. As the borrower repays the principal, equity can grow. Debt may become a tool for building wealth rather than simply a burden.
The real question is whether the household can afford the debt.
Statistics Canada’s June 2026 research found that recent immigrant homebuyers tended to have lower incomes than Canadian-born buyers while purchasing more expensive properties. Researchers warned that this pattern could be associated with higher mortgage debt and lower retirement savings.
The same study offered a useful correction to pessimistic accounts. In Ontario, the homeownership rate for immigrants in their fifth year after admission rose from 35.7% in 2018 to 40.2% in 2021, based on the study’s population and coverage.
Source: Statistics Canada, The Homeownership Trajectories of Recent Immigrants, June 2026.
Some newcomers clearly succeed in purchasing homes. Yet ownership alone tells us little about how much money remains after the mortgage payment.
I would want to know how much household income goes toward servicing debt and how much the family can save for retirement.
A homeowner with substantial equity but almost no spare cash faces a different problem from a renter unable to save a down payment. Neither situation can be understood from an Instagram photograph.
The Rent Comes Before the Dream
New immigrants rarely arrive with the same financial advantages as people who have lived in Canada for decades.
Many begin as renters. They may lack Canadian credit histories or must spend time establishing themselves in the labour market.
Housing can absorb the money they hoped to save.
A 2024 Statistics Canada study using 2021 Census data found that recent immigrant renter households paid average monthly shelter costs of C$1,510. Longer-term immigrant renters paid C$1,330, while Canadian-born renters paid C$1,220.
The figures are not adjusted estimates for identical homes in identical neighbourhoods. Recent immigrants are more concentrated in expensive urban markets, and shelter costs include certain utilities.
Source: Statistics Canada, Rental Market Study, October 2024.
That distinction matters. Canada is not one housing market.
A family in Saskatoon may face different expenses from a family in Toronto. Someone living in a smaller city may also need a car because public transport cannot meet every household’s needs.
In the comments beneath Kashif’s video, one viewer from Saskatoon reported relatively affordable rent. Another from Brampton complained about extremely expensive vehicle insurance.
Neither account establishes a national trend. Both remind us why broad claims about Canadian living costs can mislead prospective immigrants.
I examined the pressure of housing and household bills in an earlier article, Living in Canada: The Struggle to Keep Up with Rising Costs. The location matters almost as much as the salary.
Financial Discipline Cannot Repair Every Economic Problem
One commenter challenged Kashif by pointing out that mortgages and unemployment exist everywhere. India has them. Pakistan does too.
I agree with the basic objection.
A person who spends more than they earn can face financial trouble in any country. Borrowing excessively to impress relatives is hardly a Canadian invention.
But the argument becomes weaker when it treats every financial struggle as a failure of personal discipline.
A newcomer cannot save a down payment simply by avoiding expensive phones if housing prices have moved far beyond what an ordinary salary can support.
Saving money remains sensible. It does not change the price of land or increase the supply of affordable homes.
Canada also has advantages that cannot be reduced to housing costs. Publicly funded healthcare covers many medically necessary services for eligible residents, although coverage rules and waiting times vary. Legal protections and public institutions can offer security that immigrants value deeply.
The question is not whether Canada is better than Pakistan in every respect.
I find that comparison too simple. A middle-class family may enjoy greater family support in Karachi yet face expenses and risks that Canada’s public institutions help reduce.
For the Pakistani side of that decision, I have written about why Pakistan struggles to retain skilled workers and the changing migration choices facing skilled Pakistanis. Those pressures remain relevant even when life abroad is expensive.
My brother-in-law’s effort to build relationships outside his immigrant community also deserves attention here. Social connections can make a foreign country feel like home, although they cannot substitute for affordable housing.
A country’s value to an immigrant family cannot be measured by its mortgage payment alone.
The Success Story Has Not Ended
There is another reason to resist the claim that Canada’s immigrant dream has collapsed.
An August 2026 Statistics Canada study found that established immigrant families matched or exceeded the wealth of Canadian-born families across the income distribution. Recent immigrant families remained behind, even when compared within the same income groups.
Time in Canada still matters. So does the opportunity to acquire property and accumulate assets.
What we cannot establish from these figures is whether someone arriving in 2026 will achieve the same financial position after 20 years as someone who arrived in 2006.
The immigrants who settled decades ago faced their own hardships, including economic crises and periods of unemployment. Some prospered. Others did not.
Today’s newcomers may also build successful lives, particularly if they secure suitable employment and settle in places where housing remains within reach.
Yet the conditions have changed. That deserves recognition without turning every immigrant story into a tale of failure.
When I returned to the YouTube comments, I kept thinking about the man who bought his house with cash and the newcomer who felt disappointed after two years.
They were not necessarily contradicting each other.
One was describing the wealth he had accumulated over decades. The other was describing the difficulty of getting started.
Canada still offers the possibility of turning work into wealth. What remains uncertain is how long today’s newcomers must work before they can afford the first step.