Immigration and the City by Eric Fong and Brent Berry

Cultural and racial heterogeneity is one of the defi ning characteristics of the immigration that has shaped Canada and the United States, particularly in the countries' major urban centres.In recent decades, the source countries of immigration have also changed, from continental Europe to non-European countries (e.g., Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Caribbean and the Middle East).Socio-economic disparity among immigrants is another characteristic of this "new" wave of immigration.Both "old" and "new" immigration waves have played a key role in shaping the richly complex social, economic, religious, and political landscape of both countries' urban and suburban landscapes.Today, both countries' major gateway cities are characterized by a multiethnic mix of immigrant groups settled in a diverse array of neighbourhoods and diaspora communities.Th e latter provide excellent social laboratories to study "immigration and the city," and to observe how immigration, and its growing ethnic and racial diversity, aff ects urban structures and processes, including their "ethnic imprint" left on cities.However, despite the fact that immigrants and their descendants form an important segment of the total population of the major metropolises in the United States and Canada, comparative scholarly work on the rich history of their settlement experiences, community formation/structure and their impact in major "gateway cities" remains extremely limited (see the most recent work by: Qadeer 2016; Teixeira, Li and Kobayashi 2012 and Frazier, Darden and Henry 2009).In the "age of migration" this timely book by Fong and Berry thus makes an important contribution to the study of immigration in cities in the United States and Canada.As the authors note, this book largely focusses on the settlement and acculturation of immigrants in both countries.More specifi cally, it explores how geography shapes settlement in cities and key aspects of immigrant housing attainment; community, business, and economic activity; and contributions to cosmopolitan life.Th e social and economic life of immigrants, including their integration in cities is an increasingly important topic.How urban forms shape immigrants' integration patterns and how their adaptation changes these forms are key questions guiding this study.In answering them, Fong and Berry provide an invaluable perspective on how immigrants shape the structure of cities and how these cities, in turn, accommodate the immigrants' culturally diverse needs and preferences.Drawing insight from a rich multidisciplinary literature spanning migration and ethnic studies, social and cultural geography, economic and urban sociology, this well-structured, comprehensive manuscript off ers an in-depth understanding of the working of immigrant urban communities, institutions and businesses.Th e book begins by defi ning the main characteristics defi ning contemporary immigration to major cities in the United States and Canada, as well as the characteristics of the urban context where immigrants settle.Th e authors then proceed to a summary of the classical sociological explanations/perspectives in the early twentieth century and explore how new scholarly perspectives/explanations attempt to address some of the limitations

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