Race, Ethnicity, and Class in American Suburbs

Phelan, Thomas; Schneider, Mark

doi:10.1177/107808749603100504

Cited by 41 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…For example, relatively high-income Chinese immigrants have settled in single detached neighborhoods in the northeast suburbs of greater Toronto while much lower-income Somali refugees are restricted to crowded conditions in high-rise apartments, often in close proximity to Toronto's international airport. As a result of this variety of immigrant experience, the search for common underlying factors determining ethnic and racial segregation and the degree of assimilation remains inconclusive (Balakrishnan and Selvanathan, 1990;Clark, 1992Clark, , 1993Logan and Alba, 1993;Darden, 1994;Moghaddam, 1994;Murdie, 1994;Farley, 1995;Phelan and Schneider, 1996).…”

Section: Immigrants In North American Cities: a Theoretical Perspectivementioning

confidence: 97%

The Role of Ethnic Real Estate Agents in the Residential Relocation Process: A Case Study of Portuguese Homebuyers in Suburban Toronto

Teixeira¹,

Murdie²

1997

Urban Geography

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This paper examines the search behavior of a sample of Portuguese and Canadianborn homebuyers in suburban Toronto, Canada. Attention is focused on the extent to which Portuguese homebuyers rely upon real estate agents from the same ethnic background and how this source can influence the homebuyer's housing search and ultimate choice of a residence. Data were obtained from a questionnaire survey that was administered to a sample of 110 Portuguese and 90 Canadian-born recent homebuyers in the city of Mississauga, a western suburb of Toronto. All were nonresidents of Mississauga at the time of purchasing the house. The evidence indicates that Portuguese homebuyers differ significantly from the Canadian-born in their housing search by relying more extensively on ethnic sources of information, particularly real estate agents from the same ethnic background. However, almost equal numbers of Portuguese purchased houses in Portuguese and non-Portuguese neighborhoods in Mississauga. In this respect, the evidence suggests that Portuguese realtors play a more limited role in reinforcing existing spatial patterns of Portuguese settlement in Mississauga.Many homebuyers purchase houses infrequently and lack experience and knowledge about the homebuying process. As a result, the task of looking for and gathering information about residential vacancies can be stressful, costly, and time-consuming, especially in complex and heterogeneous metropolitan housing markets. The gathering of information about housing vacancies, and the search itself, also can be more complex and difficult for certain groups. Visible minorities and recent immigrants, for example, may be in a disad-497 498 TEIXEIRA AND MURDIE vantaged position when searching for and evaluating alternatives because of discrimination, language barriers, and lack of familiarity with the intricacies of local housing markets. Consequently, home seekers often look for information and advice from experts or specialists to help identify and evaluate housing alternatives.Potential homebuyers can obtain information about housing vacancies from a wide variety of sources. These range from market sources such as newspapers and real estate agents to more-specialized community-oriented sources such as friends, relatives, and real estate agents from the same ethnic background (e.g., Brown and Moore, 1970;Barrett, 1973;Rossi, 1980;Margulis, 1988;Sarre et al, 1989). The amount, quality, and biases of housing information provided by these sources can vary from one source to another and may ultimately determine the efficiency of the search strategy and the final outcome of the relocation process. Thus, differentials in search behavior, including access to different types of racially and ethnically biased information, can be a key factor in maintaining racial and ethnic segregation in housing.Of the sources noted above, real estate agents are one of the most important channels of information in the housing-search process. The study of the influence of real estate agents on household relocation...

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Section: Immigrants In North American Cities: a Theoretical Perspectivementioning

confidence: 97%

The Role of Ethnic Real Estate Agents in the Residential Relocation Process: A Case Study of Portuguese Homebuyers in Suburban Toronto

Teixeira¹,

Murdie²

1997

Urban Geography

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“…Nor are we alone in observing such patterns, even though they remain out of focus for the large majority of research on racial/ethnic residential patterning. Recent writing acknowledging the increasing racial/ethnic profile of suburbs includes Alba et al (1999), Clark (2007), Frazier and Margai (2003), Frazier andTettey-Fio (2006), Frey (2003, 2006), Li (2006), Phelan and Schneider (1996), Skop (2002), Skop and Li (2003), and Thernstrom and Thernstrom (1997). Writers have even coined terms for the phenomenon-ethnoburb (Li 1998a(Li , 1998b, invisiburb (Skop and Li 2003), and saffron suburb (Skop 2002).…”

Section: The Problem At Hand: Spatial Segregation In Today's Citymentioning

confidence: 99%

Market-Led Pluralism: Rethinking Our Understanding of Racial/Ethnic Spatial Patterning in U.S. Cities

Brown

Chung

2008

Annals of the Association of American Geographers

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Vast differences between the U.S. city of today and that of a quarter-century and half-century ago call for a rethinking of conventional frameworks that provide an explanation of clustering/segregation along racial/ethnic lines. Accordingly, we put forth a new framework, market-led pluralism, that better fits today's realities. Existing frameworks-assimilation, stratification, and resurgent ethnicity-miss a central element of today's racial/ethnic residential mosaic, the market makers. At the center are housing developers who continually unveil new urban spaces with culturally open communities; lending agencies that, encouraged and supported by government policy, provide highly affordable mortgages to an increasingly wide range of households; real estate brokers and agents for whom the discriminatory practices of the past are illegal, profit reducing, and often beside the point in today's marketplace; consumers whose preferences emphasize class-type elements such as amenities in housing and neighborhood, tempered by affordability; and communities that impose their own development agenda, or lack thereof, on the housing market. The efforts of these market makers are facilitated by pervasive and fluid information (e.g., via the Web, e-mail, cell phone); procedures that are more systematized, automated, and transparent; and well-working market mechanisms. Fleshing out market-led pluralism is done in five steps focusing on (1) building (developers-builders), (2) lending (banks, mortgage agencies, government policy and entities), (3) selling and renting (real estate practices, including discrimination), (4) consuming (buyers, renters, their preferences), and (5) local communities (annexation, zoning, development agendas, cooperative agreements among communities). Empirical support for the framework is drawn from secondary data and key-informant, protocol-driven interviews, largely focused on the Columbus, Ohio, metropolitan statistical area.Las vastas diferencias entre las ciudades estadounidenses de la actualidad y las de hace un cuarto de siglo y medio siglo exigen la reconsideración de las estructuras convencionales que proporcionan una explicación del agrupamiento/segregación a lo largo de las líneas raciales/étnicas. De acuerdo con esto, proponemos una nueva estructura, un pluralismo dirigido por el mercado, que se ajusta mejor a la realidad actual. Las estructuras existentes, asimilación, estratificación y gruposétnicos resurgentes, carecen de un elemento central en el mosaico

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“…Nonetheless, the striking differences between these groups mirror the diversity of contemporary immigrant experiences in North American urban areas. Given this reality, the search to determine common underlying factors contributing to ethnic/racial segregation and their degree of assimilation remains inconclusive (Balakrishnan, 2001;Clark, 1993;Darden, 2004;Farley, 1995;Fong & Shibuya, 2000;Logan & Alba, 1993;Murdie, 1994;Myles & Hou, 2004;Phelan & Schneider, 1996). In this context, the case of the Portuguese immigrant group, still one of the most residentially concentrated ethnic groups in Toronto despite their improved economic status and suburbanization, points to the need for further studies in the complex field of immigrant residential mobility and integration.…”

Section: The Changing Geography Of Ethnicity In North American Citiesmentioning

confidence: 92%

Residential Experiences and the Culture of Suburbanization: A Case Study of Portuguese Homebuyers in Mississauga

Teixeira

2007

Housing Studies

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This paper examines the housing experiences of immigrants to Canada through a survey of first-generation Portuguese homebuyers in Mississauga, a suburb of Toronto. The survey focused on the push/pull factors leading to their decision to live in the suburbs, their housing search strategies, and their use of services in Mississauga and in the initial area of Portuguese immigrant settlement in downtown Toronto. This study uses data from a questionnaire administered to 110 Portuguese homebuyers in 1990, shortly after their first move to suburban Mississauga; a sample of those respondents were re-interviewed in 2003. The evidence indicates that these immigrants were 'pulled' into relocating to Mississauga because of their desire to live in a single-family dwelling in a good neighbourhood. Their housing search relied extensively on ethnic sources of information, particularly Portuguese real estate agents. In general, this group of immigrants expressed satisfaction with their move. The Portuguese community in Mississauga is characterized by a form of voluntary segregation, which seems to be partly a result of their reliance on their own ethnic community for information, language barriers to participating in non-Portuguese activities, and a cultural preference for living near people of the same ethnic background. One consequence of this re-segregation process, by which Portuguese people recreate a Portuguese 'homeland' in the suburbs, has been the limitation of their social contacts with members of other ethnic communities that have also settled in suburban Mississauga.

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Race, Ethnicity, and Class in American Suburbs

Cited by 41 publications

References 25 publications

The Role of Ethnic Real Estate Agents in the Residential Relocation Process: A Case Study of Portuguese Homebuyers in Suburban Toronto

The Role of Ethnic Real Estate Agents in the Residential Relocation Process: A Case Study of Portuguese Homebuyers in Suburban Toronto

Market-Led Pluralism: Rethinking Our Understanding of Racial/Ethnic Spatial Patterning in U.S. Cities

Residential Experiences and the Culture of Suburbanization: A Case Study of Portuguese Homebuyers in Mississauga

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