Today's immigrants to Canada are increasingly and directly settling into suburban areas of major cities; a trend that has resulted in new retail opportunities: suburban ethnic shopping centres are a growing phenomenon in areas with major immigrant settlement. This paper discusses the development and retrofitting processes of three suburban Chinese shopping malls in the Toronto area. The paper explores how these malls successfully regenerated areas once affected by business decline and how they can act as a catalyst to develop a new urban form that makes the suburban landscape less uniform and more sustainable. Various perspectives from key players involved in ethnic retail activities and developments were collected, including surveys with entrepreneurs and shoppers, and semi-structured interviews with city councillors, city planners, developers, and an architect. The paper suggests that municipalities could invest in established ethnic retail places as an innovative means of "retrofitting suburbia."

The ethnic retail phenomenon is a highly recognizable symbol of Canada's multiculturalism. However, very little research has examined how 'ethnicity' is reflected through physical retail spaces or how a neighbourhood's ethnic identity is constructed and reconstructed through ethnic retail spaces. Interviews and surveys with key informants in four ethnic retail neighbourhoods in Toronto, Canada revealed the dynamics of changing ethnic retail landscapes, how ethnicity may be physically manifested, and the complex meanings behind architectural or structural changes. The results can inform municipalities about the importance of appropriate public policies in the areas of urban design, neighbourhood identity, and economic development to help enhance the flourishing ethnic landscapes.

Research about ethnic businesses primarily focuses on the urban context; yet, contemporary immigrants in North America have increasingly been settling and establishing new businesses in suburbs. This paper explores emerging suburban ethnic retail clusters in the Greater Toronto Area by comparing them to established urban business enclaves. Drawing on extensive field research, surveys, and interviews in more than 100 suburban Chinese and South Asian retail clusters, this paper explores entrepreneurial experiences in suburban retail spaces, the role of ethnic entrepreneurs in suburban placemaking, and the opportunities and constraints affecting entrepreneurs' interaction with other key players. It demonstrates the need to build on the mixed embeddedness model when exploring ethnic entrepreneurship in a suburban context, as well as the need to consider how the institutional framework plays a role in shaping ethnic retail places and the spatial and physical outcomes of ethnic entrepreneurship.

The recent waves of immigration have dramatically impacted urban landscapes and economies of Canada’s largest metropolitan regions. One notable phenomenon is the rise of ethnic retail strips and centers as physical markers of increasing multiculturalism. The dynamics of ethnic retailing pose various opportunities and challenges for municipalities; yet, our knowledge of its complexities is limited and current literature on multicultural planning offers little useful guidance in planning practice. This study examines three retail strips in the inner city of Toronto, namely East Chinatown, the Gerrard India Bazaar, and Corso Italia, and one suburban Asian theme mall, the Pacific Mall in the City of Markham in an attempt to identify the role of urban planning in responding to the rise of ethnic retail neighbourhoods. The findings of the four cases indicate that urban planners have been unable to intervene actively in ethnic retail and direct its development and growth. The planning legislative structure and the lack of policy support hinder planners’ capacity to be proactive. Planners cannot work alone to build multicultural cities. This paper concludes on the importance of municipal intervention interdepartmental collaboration as useful implications for multicultural planning practice. Résumé: Les récentes vagues d'immigration ont considérablement affecté les paysages urbains et les économies des plus grandes régions métropolitaines du Canada. Un phénomène remarquable est la montée de bandes ethniques de détail et des centres en tant que marqueurs physiques de multiculturalisme croissant. La dynamique du commerce de détail ethnique posent diverses opportunités et des défis pour les municipalités, et pourtant, notre connaissance de sa complexité est limitée et la littérature actuelle sur la planification multiculturelle offre peu d'indications utiles pour planifier la pratique. Cette étude porte sur trois bandes de détail dans le centre-ville de Toronto, à savoir East Chinatown, le Gerrard India Bazaar et Corso Italia, et un centre commercial de banlieue thème asiatique, Pacific Mall dans la ville de Markham dans une tentative d'identifier le rôle des villes la planification pour répondre à la hausse des quartiers ethniques de vente au détail. Les résultats de ces quatre cas indiquent que les urbanistes ont pu intervenir activement dans ethnique détail et orienter son développement et sa croissance. La structure de la programmation législative et le manque de soutien politique entravent la capacité des planificateurs d'être proactif. Les planificateurs peuvent pas travailler seul à construire des villes multiculturelles. Cet article conclut sur l'importance de l'intervention municipale et la collaboration interministérielle comme conséquences utiles pour la pratique de planification multiculturelle.

The increasing suburbanization of immigrant settlement in Canada’s major receiving cities has created unprecedented challenges for municipalities. Despite emerging research about the rise of ethnic suburbs in Canada and abroad, the role of suburban municipalities in facilitating immigrant integration and planning with diversity remains unclear. Based on mixed-method ethnographic research, this article investigates how immigrant and racialized communities in the Greater Toronto Area have significantly transformed suburban places and built institutionally complete communities. However, the rapid development of these spaces has not been fully recognized or supported by municipal planning authorities. Conflicts related to land use, public engagement, and public realm development expose planning’s failure to keep pace with the diverse needs of immigrant communities, who must continually negotiate and fight for their use of space. Furthermore, the lack of effective civic engagement not only ignores immigrant and racialized communities as important stakeholders in suburban redevelopment, but also threatens to destroy the social infrastructure built by these communities and their ‘informal’ practices that are often not recognized by the planning ‘norm.’ Without appropriate community consultation, planning processes can further sideline marginalized groups. Lack of consultation also tends to prevent cooperation between groups, impeding the building of inclusive communities. It is imperative for municipalities to better understand and encourage community engagement and placemaking in ethnic suburbs. This study offers several recommendations for suburban planning with diversity.