Ethnoburb
An ethnoburb is a suburban residential and business area with a notable cluster of a particular ethnic minority population, which may or may not be a local majority.
[4] The term was first coined in 1997 by Dr. Wei Li, then assistant professor of geography and Asian American studies at the University of Connecticut, in a paper examining the suburban Chinese population in Los Angeles.
In cities like San Francisco, Vancouver, and Toronto; in the New York City-Philadelphia and Washington, DC areas; and in the San Gabriel Valley, for example, Chinese immigrants have built large houses and malls catering to Chinese businesses, changing the landscape of the communities and a significant number of smaller ones throughout Canada and the US.
The book used the term "ethnoburb" for the first time, in 1997, to describe the new formation of contemporary suburban Asian settlements, and the author continues her studies in larger metropolitan areas in the US and in Canada.
Min Zhou, Yen-fen Tseng, and Rebecca Y. Kim claim: In the past, the movement of ethnic minorities of lower SES [socioeconomic status] into urban neighborhoods triggered white flight into the suburbs.
The current movement of immigrants of higher SES into the suburbs has ushered in a similar trend because newcomers have settled without going through the time-honored process of acculturation.
The Chinese ethnoburb shows that affluent immigrants from Asia, no less than blacks and Hispanics, can be perceived as a threat to white middle-class communities when they achieve a substantial presence.
Ethnoburbs are often viewed as an "expression of preferences, common interests, social networks and the cultural and/or religious residents... [serving] as the basis for their integration into the Canadian economy and society.
"[8] That view may not be shared by all geographical regions and is still an issue of contention in some areas of Canada, as ethnoburbs can present both beneficial and negative elements that may either provide a pathway for the adaptation into a new society or the hindering of assimilation by cultural division.
In comparison, the United States has historically often discouraged the maintenance of cultural identity after immigration by melting pot policies and encouragement to adopt the "American" way of life.
[10] The ethnoburb concept was developed in reference to the United States, and mainly applies there and in countries with similar immigration and urban planning contexts, such as Australia and Canada.
In the inverse of the "white flight" phenomenon seen in the United States in the twentieth century, immigrants to France—primarily from former French colonies, notably Francophone Africa—often moved to Habitations à Loyer Modéré (low-rent apartment buildings) building in suburban areas around Paris and other large cities, rather than to older neighbourhoods in the "inner city".
[12] The integration of newly arrived immigrants into the ethnoburbs of Metropolitan Vancouver has increased the diversity of the city but some might argue segregation based on ethnicity has risen in recent years.
The expansion of real estate development in the 1980s and 1990s lead to the transformation of post war suburbs into areas dominated by infamous "Vancouver Specials," monster homes, and megamalls.
Large communities of visible minorities have changed the cultural landscape Vancouver's suburbs, adding to the diverse society that the GVRD prides itself on.
[14] For many new immigrants and long time residents alike, it is a great comfort to be able buy familiar foods and communicate with shop keepers in their native languages.
Some Christians with Hong Kong roots take comfort in Cantonese sermons, being able to connect on personal, congregational, regional and international levels of community.
Stretching from Newton to Bear Creek Park, from Strawberry Hill to Kennedy Heights, the neighbourhood is a picture of ethnic integration.
According to Douglas Todd of The Vancouver Sun, a fifth of Canada's South Asian community is found in Surrey, and many neighbourhoods are "intensely monoethnic."
[14] That unique sense of place and the resulting geographies of such communities is in part due to the high occurrence of family migration practices.
[2] In addition to escaping regional congestion, this area offered further geographical opportunities as it "is bordered by three major freeways... making it easier to get downtown, where most jobs were located, and to Chinatown.
[5] She reveals further differences between an ethnoburb and Chinatown in that the composition of the populations vary in terms of age, socioeconomic level, and time since their immigration.
In addition, a higher level of education is more common within an ethnoburb when compared to a Chinatown, thus allowing for a greater degree of use and understanding of English within the areas.
The Washington D.C. area has a large amount of significant ethnoburbs for its immigrant populations, due to the rising house prices and limited space in the District itself.
[3] Areas that are on the outer suburb zone (Markham, Richmond Hill, and Mississauga) make up the remaining percentage of Chinese population.
In recent years, the Chinese economy in the Greater Toronto Area has changed from local restaurants and grocery stores to consumer services in large shopping centres.
Much like in Los Angeles, the Chinese population in Toronto also stratifies along lines of origin and socioeconomic class that show up in residential patterns.
[3] Immigrants from Hong Kong were the largest population from China to Toronto and moved to Markham and Richmond Hill, which influenced the style of the new upscale shopping centres.
[22][23] Notably, South Asians are the fastest growing minority group in the distant Toronto suburbs of Milton and Ajax, and numerous Hindu, Sikh, and Muslim places of worship have been built in those areas.
