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.
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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