SCARP's Julia Harten joins Bridging Divides Research Program with her bold project

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January 20, 2025

We're happy to announce that SCARP Associate Professor Julia Harten has been named one of UBC’s new Bridging Divides researchers!

About Bridging Divides

The interdisciplinary Bridging Divides Research Program is a collaborative project between:

This research program is committed to advancing knowledge about the challenges and opportunities that migrant integration poses in Canada and beyond. Focusing on urban contexts, including large urban centers and small- to mid-sized cities, the program targets the primary destinations of newcomers and settled immigrants. Bridging Divides aims to produce innovative and practical knowledge by exploring the relationship between Advanced Digital Technologies and migrant integration. How will these technologies impact service provision, reorganize work, and change the way immigrants participate in civil society?

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About Harten’s project in progress

“Leveraging Machine Learning to Study Immigrant Renting via Online Advertisements in Vancouver”

Mirroring global trends, a growing share of immigrants to Canada are renting, but the evidence landscape on immigrant renting is patchy at best. Rental markets in general present unique research challenges, making it difficult to get an accurate reading of rental housing activity. Recent studies have leveraged online rental listings for new insights, but the vast majority consider dominant-language platforms only. In places with substantial immigrant communities, such as many Canadian cities, this narrow focus is highly problematic. To address this gap, Harten will examine Vancouver’s rental market using online listings from two platforms, one English, and one Chinese.

Research questions:
  • Does information supply differ across platforms, and to the extent that it does, how do differences online compare to actual settlement patterns?
  • Do listings on the Chinese language platform cater to recent immigrants to Canada?

Read Harten’s full project overview
(updated as project progresses)

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About Julia Harten

Harten's research leverages new data methods to study housing and socio-spatial inequality. She focuses on the housing strategies of marginalized people and the role of cities and housing for social mobility, both in Asia and North America.

Learn more

Read more about the new project members 

Congratulations Dr. Harten, and we can't wait to see where your insights take us.

  • Research and projects

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