Relations between Deprivation and Immigrant Groups in Large Canadian Cities

Abstract

With the co-existence of social polarisation and unprecedented immigration during recent years in major Canadian cities, this paper examines relationships between urban deprivation and the immigrant population in 1991, compared with 1971, the end of the era of the 'old' migration. Census tracts in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver that experienced multiple deprivation are identified. Only two tracts in all three cities displayed the full set of indicators in 1991, and none in 1971. Indicators neither overlap, nor are as spatially contained, nor are as stable over time as has been true for cities in the US. Like northern Europe, there is evidence of a suburbanisation of deprivation, linked in particular to the diffusion of state-subsidised housing, especially in Toronto. In addition, and also like Europe, there are positive relationships with immigrant populations. But these relations are modest, and affect primarily recent arrivals and non-English-speaking groups. The implications of immigration are complex, because immigrants themselves are highly heterogeneous. Moreover, a longitudinal model of socio-spatial mobility rather than socio-spatial entrapment remained the dominant immigrant experience in Canadian cities.