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Although the influx of visible minority immigrants has created an atmosphere of diversity and multiculturalism in Canada's three major gateway cities, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, immigration has also produced metropolitan landscapes of fragmentation and ethnic separation. The objective of this study is to compare the residential patterns of visible minority populations in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, using a rigorous and consistent method that examines the temporal and spatial nature of segregation and its links to local housing characteristics. The paper reviews the literature on models of urban separation, and ethnic and visible minority segregation in Canadian cities, and develops four propositions regarding expected residential patterns and concentrations of visible minorities. It tests these propositions using an analysis of 1986, 1991 and 1996 Census data, in which residential patterns in the three cities are examined and related to the distribution of different types of housing. Our findings confirm previous research results of fragmentation and dispersal, but we uncover decisive differences between cities.
Key words: visible minorities, ethnic segregation, gateway cities, housing
Introduction
Canadian residents of non-European origin, or 'visible minorities', may soon constitute a majority in Toronto and Vancouver (Samuel 1988; Chard and Renaud 1999; Hiebert 1999; Ley 1999). The influx of visible minority immigrants has created an atmosphere of diversity and multiculturalism in Canada's three major gateway cities, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver; but immigration has also produced metropolitan landscapes of fragmentation and ethnic separation (Bourne et al. 1986; Bourne 1989; Doucet 1999; Hiebert 1999). The objective of this study is to compare the residential patterns of visible minority populations in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. Thus this paper complements recent studies on the spatial separation and distribution of visible minority immigrants in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver (Ray 1998, 1999; Archambault et al. 1999; Chard and Renaud 1999; Doucet 1999; Driedger 1999; Hiebert 1999). What needs to be added to these previous studies, however, is a comparison between all three cities using a rigorous and consistent method that examines the temporal and spatial nature of segregation and its links to local housing characteristics.
In the first part of the paper we review the literature on models of urban separation, and ethnic and visible minority segregation in Canadian cities. Based on this literature we develop four propositions...