Ghettos in Canada's cities? Racial segregation, ethnic enclaves and poverty concentration in Canadian urban areas

Abstract

Recent literature suggests a growing relationship between the clustering of certain visible minority groups in urban neighbourhoods and the spatial concentration of poverty in Canadian cities, raising the spectre of ghettoization. This paper examines whether urban ghettos along the U.S. model are forming in Canadian cities, using census data for 1991 and 2001 and borrowing a neighbourhood classification system specifically designed for comparing neighbourhoods in other countries to the U.S. situation. Ecological analysis is then performed in order to compare the importance of minority concentration, neighbourhood classification and housing stock attributes in improving our understanding of the spatial patterning of low-income populations in Canadian cities in 2001. The findings suggest that ghettoization along U.S. lines is not a factor in Canadian cities and that a high degree of racial concentration is not necessarily associated with greater neighbourhood poverty. On the other hand, the concentration of apartment housing, of visible minorities in general, and of a high level of racial diversity in particular, do help in accounting for the neighbourhood patterning of low income. We suggest that these findings result as much from growing Il ressort de la littérature la plus récente qu'il existerait une association de plus en plusétroite entre la forte concentration en milieu urbain de personnes appartenantà des groupes de minorités visibles et la concentration spatiale de la pauvreté dans les villes canadiennes, phénomène qui n'est pas sans soulever le spectre de la ghettoïsation. C'est dans cette optique que ce papier examine si les ghettos urbainsà l'américaine ont vu le jour dans les villes canadiennes,à partir des données des recensements de 1991 et de 2001 età l'aide d'un système de classification des quartiers conçu spécifiquement pourétablir des comparaisons entre les quartiers de différents pays et ceux desÉtats-Unis. Une analysé ecologique est ensuite menée afin de comparer l'importance de la concentration des minorités, la classification par quartier, et les caractéristiques du parc de logements et ainsi mieux comprendre la configuration spatiale des populationsà faible revenu dans les villes canadiennes en 2001. Les résultats laissent entendre que la ghettoïsationà l'américaine n'est pas un facteurà prendre en compte en ce qui concerne les villes canadiennes, et que la tendance vers une concentration de groupes ethniques n'est pas nécessairement associée au niveau de pauvreté The Canadian Geographer / Le Géographe canadien 50, no 3 (2006) 273-297 C / Canadian Association of Geographers / L'Association canadienne des géographes 274 R. Alan Walks and Larry S. Bourne income inequality within as between each visible minority group. This increases the odds of poor visible minorities of each group ending up in the lowest-cost, least-desirable neighbourhoods from which they cannot afford to escape (including social housing in the inner suburbs). By contrast, wealthier members of minority groups are more mobi...

Identifying inequitable exposure to toxic air pollution in racialized and low-income neighbourhoods to support pollution prevention

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Differences in hi‐tech immigrant earnings and wages across Canadian cities

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Residential Segregation in the Industrializing City: A Closer Look

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