Neighbourhood attainment and residential
segregation among Toronto's visible minorities
by John Myles and Feng Hou
Business and Labour Market Analysis Division
Analytical Studies Branch research
paper series, No. 206
Context
The social complexion of Canadian
cities have been irreversibly altered since the 1960s as new waves of visible
minority immigrants have replaced traditional white, European, migrant flows.
For Canada and other nations with little prior history of "racial" diversity,
this development increased residential concentration by racial groups.
Objective(s)
We
examine residential settlement patterns of Toronto 's three largest visible minority
groups with "locational attainment" models.
Findings
Unlike
previous studies, we conclude that residential settlement patterns among Blacks
and South Asians, like those of recent non-English speaking white immigrants,
conform rather well to the immigrant enclave model associated with conventional
spatial assimilation theory.
Initial settlement is in disadvantaged immigrant
neighbourhoods from which long-term more successful immigrants subsequently exit.
As anticipated by Logan, Alba and Zhang, however, early success in the
housing market among Chinese immigrants is associated with the formation of more
enduring ethnic communities.
Rather than being historically novel, however,
the Chinese are replicating the settlement pattern of earlier Southern European
immigrants and for much the same reasons-relative advantage in the housing market
and low levels of English proficiency.
Data source(s)
Census 1996.
Also available: "Changing Colours: Spatial Assimilation and New Racial
Minority Immigrants". Myles, J. and F. Hou. 2004. Canadian Journal of Sociology
29(1): 29-58.
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the full publication.
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