In Vancouver's case, I don't think there's a strong desire to maintain a locked down community -- at least, not among the voices who complain about run-away real estate prices.

What there are complaints about are foreign investors who bid up property prices but don't move to the city, at least not before retirement age.

This causes a huge disconnect between the price of land in an area, and the earning potential in that area. For people who hope to own land but don't already, it's always out of reach, because they aren't competing with their peers, and the wealthy pockets that are buying homes aren't customers of other local businesses. It's not quite the same as a cluster of unicorns driving up tech salaries to the point where teachers and nurses can't compete on the market. There are no unicorns based in Vancouver. It's hard to identify any career path, even doctor, rockstar engineer, or lawyer, that a high school graduate today could expect to follow while working in this city and be on track for home ownership when time comes to start a family. Assuming that the trend continues, that is. And if it corrects, then it's a question of who was unlucky enough to catch the knife -- because any young locals in the ownership market are going to be highly leveraged, there's no other way.

That might read like xenophobia, but actual immigrants who intend to live, work, and raise families here are generally warmly welcomed and appreciated no matter where they come from. There are some people who get their signals crossed but it's a small minority.

Also if your an immigrant who is resident in Canada, your not subject to these taxes! It's a 'you gotta live here' tax.

Not subject to the foreign buyer tax, yes; it's unclear that these taxes have actually solved the above issue though. For money laundering it's an acceptable cost of doing business; for others there are ways around it (hence the 20-year-old undergrads prepared to pay $1.4 million in cash that another commenter mentioned).

> wishing to preserve a locked down community

How do you differentiate it from xenophobia?

Depends on the community culture and what they perceive as outsider behaviour. e.g. A protestant might not be welcomed in a catholic neighborhood.

But isn't "outgroup members are not welcome" the definition of (mild) xenophobia? Indeed, religious disagreements are a major source of it.

I'm just confused. I thought they're the same thing.

One is proactive assessment by a community, the other is blind bigotry against outsiders. The inclusion of bigotry as a deciding component is the key, IMHO.

One wants to proactively stop outsiders from joining their community. The other stops outsiders from joining their community using bigotry? Can you see why I'm confused?

No. I may be seeing an argument of semantic similarity, but the inclusion of bigotry is the defining factor of xenophobia. Closing down a community can be due to other drivers beyond fear of outsiders.