Canadian Cities and their Immigrants: New Realities

Abstract

Following new federal regulations and procedures introduced in the 1960s, the nature of immigrant flows to Canada has changed radically. Over the last two decades, the immigrant population has increasingly become nonwhite and now comes mostly from macroregions other than Europe (including Britain) and the United States—notably, Asia. Thus the new immigrants exhibit greater cultural and racialized diversity than ever before. Most immigrants settle in Canada's cities, principally the leading metropolitan centers. Certain metropolitan areas—especially Toronto—attract large numbers; others participate relatively little in the settlement process. This, together with new social geographies at the municipal and neighborhood scales, has important implications for public debates over immigration and intergovernmental policymaking. The new immigrants have brought about important changes in urban social life, including education, health care, policing, business development, and labor markets. New urban realities challenge Canadian society at a critical period in its statehood.

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References

1. For another perspective on this relationship, see Sherry Olson and Audrey Kobayashi , “The Emerging Ethnocultural Mosaic,” in The Changing Social Geography of Canadian Cities, ed. Larry S. Bourne and David F. Ley (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1993).

2. In considering racialized identities and the use of racialized labels or names, it is important to state that these are not immutable or biologically determined. Rather, they need to be understood as social constructions, most commonly determined by the politically powerful leadership of a majority population or group. The term “racialized” conveys a sense of the social process necessarily involved, connoting human agency, instead of something seen as natural and predetermined, like “race.” Neither can racialized identities be simply equated with or inferred from data on national origin or place of birth. To be, for example, a Caribbean-born immigrant in Canada does not mean that a black racial identity should be conferred immediately or automatically by an outsider or analyst. Caribbean-born persons could be of a variety of ancestries. Therefore, if racialized labels or categories are used for description or social analysis, then terms other than just “black” would be appropriate. Nevertheless, without detailed knowledge from fine-grained census or survey data, or from ethnographic research or personal knowledge, the equation of “black” as a racialized term with people born in the Caribbean or in Africa can serve as an approximation of the majority situation in most instances. But the reader must be mindful that this is only a first-order approximation masking complex realities.

3. Nancy Waxler-Morrison et al. , Cross-Cultural Caring: A Handbook for Health Professionals (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1991).

4. Thomas Gabor , “The Suppression of Crime Statistics on Race and Ethnicity,” Canadian Journal of Criminology, 36(2):149-185 (1994).

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6. L. N. Christofides and R. Swidinsky , “Wage Determination by Gender and Minority Status,” Canadian Public Policy, 20:34-51 (1994).