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Exploring Minority Enclave Areas in Montréal, Toronto, and Vancouver
Daniel Hiebert
Metropolis British Columbia and Geography, UBC
June, 2009
Acknowledgement
Thanks to Multiculturalism Branch of CIC (was in Heritage when this research was commissioned)
Thanks to Canadian Heritage for access to a special tabulation of data
Outline
Context: Growing interest in the geography of immigrant settlement and social diversity
Basic questions motivating the study Methodology: Neighbourhood typology Analysis: Enclave dynamics in MTV Conclusion: Should we be concerned?
1. The context: Growing public interest Are poor, 'ethnic' areas cages? Doug Saunders The Globe
& Mail. 2 March 2009 How best to serve students in culturally clustered schools?;
Educators debate need for same-culture role models amid reality of 'segregated' schools Louise Brown. Toronto Star. May 20, 2008. pg. A.6
In urban areas, minorities no longer; Visible minorities dominate some Toronto suburbs Graeme Hamilton. National Post. Apr 3, 2008. pg. A.1
In praise of ghettoes San Grewal. Toronto Star. Feb 2, 2008. pg. ID.2
New immigrants to GTA choosing suburbs over city, Uof T study finds Natalie Alcoba. National Post. Apr 1, 2008. pg. A.9
Do ethnic enclaves impede integration? Marina Jiménez. The Globe and Mail. Feb 8, 2007. pg. A.8
Interest from government and NGOs
Why the interest?
Maybe the micro-patterns of residential location are irrelevant to national public policy
But… The media makes these inescapable issues Housing is fundamental to the settlement process “where” can tell you a lot about “how” (i.e., how
well is integration going?)
Further potential connections and questions: Are worsening economic outcomes for newcomers
linked to their geography of settlement? Are “cultures of poverty” being developed, of
immigrants / visible minorities adopting defeatist attitudes and transmitting them to their Canadian-born children?
Could this be a source of social tension? Is there a possibility of race-based riots, as in some
other countries? (Diane Francis; Martin Collacott)
Academic work
In general enclaves are interpreted in polarized terms As revealing economic marginalization and a lack
of assimilation / integration Or as helpful social environments essential to the
well-being of newcomers and members of minority groups
International context
These questions are at the forefront of public debate in many countries, especially in Europe
Terrorist acts, riots (UK, France), politically-motivated murder (Netherlands), have all contributed to these concerns
Several countries have even adopted “desegregation” policies
Public opinion is sharply negative of perceived minority isolation
Qualification
There are VERY FEW studies of social life and attitudes in Canadian minority enclaves
Ironically, for all the attention to this issue, we know little
This study: broad statistical overview of enclaves in MTV But it cannot answer many critical questions…
need more research…
2. Questions motivating this study How has the residential geography of Visible Minority
groups changed between 1996 and 2006? Are enclaves becoming more prevalent in MTV?
What is the socio-economic profile of Visible Minority enclaves? Who lives in them? Who does not? Are there systematic
differences between these sub-populations? Are enclaves ethnoculturally homogeneous? What is the relationship between enclaves and poverty? Where are the areas of concern, where we find overlapping
social isolation and socio-economic marginalization? What is the demographic profile of these areas of concern?
3. Methodology
Defining enclaves: Neighbourhood typology Census data
Defining enclaves
There is no perfect measure Definitions of enclaves vary Traditional urban geography: maps and
indices of segregation between groups Emerging international comparative method
using neighbourhood typology
Neighbourhood types (after Poulson et al 2001)
I. “White areas” (citadels) or “Isolated host communities”: at least 80% White
II. “White dominant areas”: between 50-80% White III. “Mixed, Visible-Minority dominant areas”: 50-70%
Visible Minority IV. “Mixed minority enclaves”: at least 70% Visible
minority but no dominant group V. “Minority group enclaves”: as above but with one
group >2x any other group VI. “Ghettoes”: when 60%+ of a group are in Type V
areas (does not occur in Canada)
Utility of the typology approach Conceptually simple Easy to calculate (based on Census Tract
units of measurement) Possibility of international comparison The types are probably meaningful in lived
experience, though this needs investigation to verify
Based on the types, what do we ask? Change over time (census->census) Distribution of different groups Association between neighbourhood types
and other variables, especially poverty Another study: generational dynamics
4. Results of the analysis
Question 1: Are more people living in enclaves in MTV? No and yes…
Residential change in Montreal
Residential change in Toronto
Residential change in Vancouver
How does this compare?
2000: USA: The typical African-American person (12% of population) lives in a census tract that is 51% Black, 33% White, 16% Other (more than 4x over-representation)
2001: Vancouver: The typical Chinese-Canadian person (17% of population) lives in a census tract that is 46% White, 34% Chinese, 20% other (2x over-representation)
Results…
Question 2: Who lives in / outside enclaves?
Table 3a: Characteristics of residents, by neighbourhood type, Montréal, 2006
Neighbourhood types
I II III IV V Total
Population, 2006 - 100% data 2,484,293 963,553 150,281 23,535 6,639 3,628,301
% 68.5 26.6 4.1 0.6 0.2 100.0
Owned (%) 60.4 41.6 23.2 10.0 13.1 53.5
Median household income ($) 58,373 44,686 32,356 26,704 30,702 53,405
Non-official home languages (%) 5.9 22.4 42.3 46.2 42.4 12.1
Immigrants 2001 to 2006 2.4 7.9 15.2 22.5 15.1 4.5
Visible minority population 7.9 29.3 56.9 78.0 70.3 16.2
University degree 25.4 29.6 26.0 29.1 32.4 26.6
Unemployment rate 5.7 9.2 14.4 16.8 15.6 7.1
Government transfers (% income) 11.1 15.4 24.4 29.4 29.3 13.0
Prevalence of low income (%) 18.6 30.4 45.2 58.8 61.8 23.2
Table 3b: Characteristics of residents, by neighbourhood type, Toronto, 2006
Neighbourhood types
I II III IV V Total
Population, 2006 - 100% data 1,231,778 1,853,519 1,003,231 306,054 710,907 5,105,489
% 24.1 36.3 19.7 6.0 13.9 100.0
Owned (%) 74.6 65.7 64.5 57.0 69.0 67.6
Median household income ($) 83,633 69,399 63,333 56,514 61,119 69,716
Non-official home languages (%) 9.5 23.6 33.7 40.8 48.3 26.7
Immigrants 2001 to 2006 2.7 7.6 11.7 14.8 15.4 8.7
Visible minority population 10.5 33.7 59.4 78.7 81.5 42.5
University degree 33.2 33.1 31.2 28.7 32.2 32.3
Unemployment rate 5.0 6.4 7.7 9.1 8.5 6.8
Government transfers (% income) 6.0 8.7 10.9 13.5 11.9 9.2
Prevalence of low income (%) 9.9 17.8 23.2 29.7 26.4 18.9
Table 3c: Characteristics of residents, by neighbourhood type, Vancouver, 2006
Neighbourhood types
I II III IV V Total
Population, 2006 - 100% data 491,140 759,988 551,292 28,596 285,560 2,116,576
% 23.2 35.9 26.1 1.3 13.5 100.0
Owned (%) 75.0 59.3 64.6 63.9 65.2 65.2
Median household income ($) 67,410 57,302 53,636 51,871 49,196 57,526
Non-official home languages (%) 6.7 19.3 36.9 50.6 52.6 25.9
Immigrants 2001 to 2006 2.6 6.4 9.7 10.4 11.7 7.2
Visible minority population 12.3 32.7 58.2 82.0 78.0 41.3
University degree 27.4 34.4 30.7 25.7 28.7 30.9
Unemployment rate 4.2 5.5 6.4 6.6 6.7 5.6
Government transfers (% income) 7.3 7.7 10.2 14.2 12.5 9.0
Prevalence of low income (%) 9.8 17.2 19.4 19.0 22.3 16.8
Results…
Generalizations Montreal: few live in enclaves but they are part of
the landscape of deep deprivation Irony: penalty is highest in the city with the least enclave
development Toronto and Vancouver: “culture gap” is large but
socio-economic gap is less significant Less “penalty” for residents of these areas Interesting point: in general residents of single-group-
dominant areas (Type V) are better off than those in multiple-group enclaves
What about members of VM groups inside vs. outside enclaves? Are there systematic differences?
Yes, but in several important aspects they are not large
Results
Question 3: How ethno-culturally diverse are enclaves? Expectation: much less diverse than “mixed”
areas Method… count number of groups across areas
Table 5: Average number of ethnic origin groups in each neighbourhood Type, MTV, 2006
I II III IV V Total
Montréal 17.7 21.8 24.0 26.7 22.0 20.0
Toronto 23.6 25.8 26.7 28.4 23.7 25.3
Vancouver 24.8 27.0 24.3 18.5 17.4 24.1
Source: Statistics Canada, 2006 census, Dissemination Area profiles
Results…
Question 4: What is the relationship between enclaves and poverty? Logic of a 2x2 table
Enclave (Types IV and V) vs. areas of double avg. LICO If enclave = poverty, then everyone should be in
the cells on the major diagonal
Areas of deepest poverty
Vancouver: Downtown Eastside: not an immigrant area
Montreal: most of the neighbourhoods in deep poverty are not immigrant / minority areas
Toronto: deep poverty tends to be associated with immigrants and / or minorities (but it is also the CMA with the highest ratio of immigrants)
Results…
Question 5: Who lives in economically marginalized enclaves? MTV: age is not a significant variable In M and T, residents of these areas are likely to
be less educated than those outside them… but the relationship is reversed in Vancouver
Montreal: South Asians Toronto: Blacks and South Asians Vancouver: Chinese
Reflections (1)
Growing number of newcomers / members of VM groups And this is, generally, an economically disadvantaged
population But also a highly variegated one And with a high desire to purchase equity in the housing
market This population generally gravitates to areas of cheaper
housing, either rental (especially social housing) or for purchase Residential landscapes: areas of social housing,
condominiums, and single-detached suburban houses As this happens, Visible Minorities move away from White-
dominated neighbourhoods
Reflections (2)
But generally NOT to areas of economic deprivation The trajectory is toward classic enclaves, not
“ghettoes” Non-rigorous evidence also suggests that they are
NOT areas with anti-mainstream attitudes (in contrast to the banlieu areas of Paris) … this needs further study Also see high education levels of enclaves
And there is actually an interesting mix of ethnic dominance / diversity in these areas
Reflections (3)
But there are some areas that we should classify as both enclaves and marginalized 3.8% of VM population in Montreal, 5.4% in
Toronto, and 2.6% in Vancouver These areas tend to be associated with negative
stereotypes This is an important social policy issue
That is, enclaves IN GENERAL are not a policy issue, but marginalized enclaves are
Should the “fix” be geographical?
Reflections (4)
There are important differences across MTV In the scale of enclave development In the growth of enclave areas In the groups living in enclaves In the socio-economic nature of enclaves
No single-policy solution…
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