Immigration, Geographical Residential Patterns, and the Canadian Assimilation Debate, Pablo Mendez, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia

Up and out

the underlying assumption of the so-called assimilation thesis

Up and out the underlying assumption of the so-called assimilation thesis upon arrival, immigrants move into same-group neighbourhoods with time, they are able to convert their socio- economic achievements into a dispersed residential situation

Voluntary ethno-cultural co-location can be a beneficial practice if it maintains cultural values, it strengthens social networks, and it allows the passing of critical thresholds for the support of institutions and shops. (Peach 1996)

Rejection of the underclass thesis

although the convergence of multiple indicators of deprivation affected more newcomers in 2001 than in 1996 (Smith 2004)

The average member of the visible minority group Chinese lives in a Chinesecensus tract … but only about half of the total Chinese population for these three cities lived in such census tracts (Hou 2004)

A bifurcation of the model? a traditional version (continues to apply to most groups) a new version (would apply only to certain groups, in particular the Chinese) ( Haan 2005 )

The well-documented residential concentration of Chinese households implies a level of geographical convergence that actually overshadows the high degree of separateness between some Chinese sub- groups, a phenomenon that can only be measured if the Chinese category is disaggregated by country of origin (Lo & Wang, 1997).

Conclusion

Census tracts in which at least 30 percent of the population belonged to one of Montreals, Torontos or Vancouvers top three visible minority groups Sources: Hou & Picot 2003, Hou 2004