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Tehranto: Stories of Home and Belonging from Toronto’s Iranian Diaspora

Tehranto business signage
Project Lead

Nima Naghibi, Department of English, TMU

Amin Moghadam, CERC Migration, TMU

Contact email addresses: nnaghibi@torontomu.ca, amin.moghadam@torontomu.ca

Overview

This is an interdisciplinary project led by Nima Naghibi (Department of English, TMU) and Amin Moghadam (CERC Migration, TMU). The project undertakes a study of the growth and influence the Iranian community in Toronto has had with important emotional and material ties to Iran. It pays particular attention to how “home” is constructed, understood, challenged, felt, and experienced by mapping the development of Tehranto over the past 40 plus years of Iranian immigration to the city, while keeping in mind that for many diasporic Iranians, the nostalgic narrative of “home” is further complicated by the often multiple homes they occupied before finally arriving to Toronto. 

The project centres the life narratives, recollections, and memories of members of the Iranian community in Toronto, and interrogates the emotional relationships of Iranian migrants to Toronto by problematizing three specific concepts: first, the mobilization of nostalgia as an emotion along with its cultural and material manifestations; second, the practice of homemaking and homeownership, and its related emotional dimensions; third, the concept of return, invoking nostalgic narratives and spaces of an imagined, and sometimes even an actual, return to the country of origin, Iran.

Objective

The objectives of this study are:

  1. To deepen empirical knowledge of the political and social dimensions of the Iranian community in Canada, especially in Toronto, and to expand scholarship on this topic. 
  2. To take a theoretical approach, using an emotional analysis of migration and settlement experiences to offer an insider’s perspective by bridging the Social Sciences and Humanities. The research focuses on three dominant emotional components in migration narratives: nostalgia, the desire for home, and the longing for return. It examines how these emotions shape migrants’ individual and collective experiences in relation to self, community, and society.
  3. To explore how emotions influence domestic and urban spaces in “Tehranto”. This approach, combining emotion and spatial analysis, offers a novel lens on integration and aims to serve as a model for studying other immigrant communities.
Research questions
  1. How are Tehrantonians shaping their personal narratives of immigration, of home, and of belonging in relation to Tehran (or Iran more generally) and to Toronto?
  2. How do the various businesses in Tehranto, as well as homemaking practices of individuals and families, inform a particular understanding and imagining of Iran for older and newer immigrants?
  3. In what ways do the successive waves of immigrants to this city imagine their relationship to Iran, to Toronto, and to each other? 
  4. How have the different waves of immigration from the early 1980s to the present time helped shape the development of Tehranto as a conceptual as well as a geographical space of belonging for Iranian-Canadians but also for diasporic Iranians globally?
  5. To what extent does the study of Iranian diasporic spaces in Toronto inform us about more general issues of urban and cultural diversity in this city? 
Background

Although Toronto’s Iranian diaspora is one of the largest outside Iran—second only to Los Angeles—and increasingly visible and politically active, Tehranto: Stories of Home and Belonging from Toronto’s Iranian Diaspora will be the first extended study of this community. The project aims to demonstrate the value of an interdisciplinary approach to studying the Iranian diaspora. Migration scholarship, particularly on Iranians, often focuses on economic factors such as labour market integration and uses fixed categories like race, religion, and ethnicity to examine social dynamics. While drawing on this literature and adopting an intersectional lens, this project centers the analysis of emotions to explore the complexities, tensions, and degrees of belonging that shape migratory experiences and spaces. It also contributes to understanding Toronto’s evolution into a city celebrated for its diversity and multiculturalism. Grounded in a deep knowledge of Iranian diasporic culture, this study contextualizes the community within the transformation of “Tehranto” from a predominantly White Anglo-Saxon area to a vibrant Iranian hub, through personal narratives of migration, homemaking, and belonging.

Methodology

The research team will use interviews, public readings, photovoice, and subjective cartography to collect data while advancing knowledge mobilization.

  • Phase 1 includes public readings and gathering archival, media, and social media data to map the development of Iranian businesses and community spaces in Toronto.
  • Phase 2 focuses on collecting qualitative data through interviews, participant observation, photography, and emotional mapping during urban and domestic tours with  participants. This ethnographic approach will reveal the diverse experiences of home and belonging within Toronto’s Iranian community.
  • In Phase 3, the investigators will collaborate with TMU’s Centre for Digital Humanities and the Library Collaboratory to develop an interactive digital platform using geolocated storytelling applications. Participants will connect memories and emotions to places in Toronto and abroad, creating layered, transnational “home-city biographies.”
  • Phase 4 will result in a digital map installation and public exhibition showcasing participants’ stories, photographs, and emotional maps. Hosted at TMU, this installation will serve as both an archival record and a dynamic storytelling platform highlighting the Iranian diaspora’s migration and homemaking experiences.
Current status

This project is currently in its first phase. Researcher have organized two public readings in 2024. Researcher have begun conducting interviews with members of the Iranian community in Toronto and are actively building an archive of stories, photographs, and emotional maps.

2028

Funding

Social and Sciences Humanities Research Council (Insight Development Grant)

Key words

Iranian Diaspora, Toronto, Tehranto, Emotional Geography, Iran, Nostalgia, Home, Home Making, Return