Who Drinks Bubble Tea? Coethnic Studentification in Toronto’s Chinatown

This article examines studentification in Toronto’s Chinatown, a centrally located neighborhood experiencing increases in student populations due to nearby university expansion. This expansion has been met with land-use planning policies of intensification and containment, and market-driven development propelling substantial density increases. We seek to answer, first, what types of development and residential trends result from rising student housing demand; second, how are commercial uses influenced by a growing student population of young, largely racialized adults and their lifestyle choices; and, third, what types of neighborhood tensions and micropolitics play out in this context. We show that the growing university intake of international students—particularly from China—living near Chinatown has created class-based and generational tensions in response to coethnic and market-driven neighborhood change. We highlight opportunities for multistakeholder collaborations to preserve Chinatown as an affordable intergenerational neighborhood where residents (old and new) find communities of arrival and belonging.