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…