Neighbourhood attainment and residential segregation among Toronto's visible
minorities
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.
Objectives
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
Sources: 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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