Suburban Chinatowns in Canada

"Chinatown has been a symbol of the ethnic enclave since the 19th century in North America, traditionally located in the downtowns of cities across the United States and Canada. However, traditional Chinatowns are no longer the primary destination for Chinese immigrants; instead, there has been a boom of suburban Chinese settlements, suburban enclaves seen by some as the “Suburban Chinatown.” Suburban Chinatowns play an essential role in Chinese immigration in North America today. From San Gabriel Valley in sunny Southern California to Flushing in the suburbs of New York City, from Richmond in British Columbia to the York Region of the Greater Toronto Area, suburban Chinese communities exist in almost every major metropolitan in North America. Some of the biggest suburban Chinatowns are found in Canada. Suburban Chinatowns in Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton, and Ottawa are popular immigration destinations for Chinese. However, Chinatowns in the suburbs of these cities have been little studied. The lack of research on the suburban Chinatown in Canada, particularly in metropolitan areas other than Vancouver and Toronto, means a missed opportunity to reflect on the cultural and social influences of Chinese immigration in the Canadian context. This supervised research project (SRP) sought to fill this gap. In this project, I address several questions to help understand the emergence of suburban Chinatowns in Canada today. • what are the characteristics of a suburban Chinatown in Canada? • where are suburban Chinatowns located in Canada? • what are the suburban Chinatowns like? • what are the impacts of the suburban Chinatowns on the local economy, culture, politics, and society? The SRP answer these questions through a review of the literature (Chapter 2), demographic analysis (Chapter 4), and qualitative assessments of Chinatown’s impacts on their locales (Chapter 5). In Chapter 2, I review the literature on the history of suburban Chinatowns in the United States and Canada to understand the formation of downtown Chinatowns and the emergence of suburban ones. The argument, in brief, is: Chinese immigrants faced discrimination and exclusion from the residents of European descents in the 19th century until the first half of the 20th century in the United States; such exclusion led to the formation of original Chinatowns in large U.S. metropolitan areas, so that the Chinese immigrants could have access to affordable housing, shops, and other Chinese-ethnic services. Suburban Chinatowns began to blossom in the United States and Canada only once restrictions on people of Chinese descent reduced and new influxes of Chinese immigrants to North America occurred following the economic take-off of Asian countries in the late 20th century. Many scholars recognize San Gabriel Valley, California to be the first suburban Chinatown in North America, and treat it as a model of how suburban Chinatowns emerge, their characteristics, and their impacts on the local society, economy, and politics. In contrast to the history of U.S. Chinatowns, existing documentation of suburban Chinatowns in Canada is limited, especially for the suburban Chinatown in smaller metropolitan areas in Canada. In Chapter 4, I present demographic data on the Chinese population in Canada to understand general growth trends and spatial characteristics. Key finding include: the Chinese population is growing quickly across the selected CMAs, especially in Montreal, Calgary, Ottawa, and Toronto (growth rates of the Chinese population above 50% between 2001 to 2016); the growth rate of the immigrants from Mainland China in the last 15 years outpaced that of Chinese from Hong Kong or Taiwan, particularly in Montreal and Calgary; as a result, in 2016, throughout Canada, more Chinese immigrants to Canada come from Mainland China than from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Moreover, the analysis reveals that the number of Mandarin speakers increased dramatically in the last 15 years in many CMAs. The spatial distribution of the Chinese population in Canada reveal concentrations in suburban areas of Edmonton (Wards 7 and 9), Calgary (Ward 4), Ottawa (Huntley Township), Toronto (the City of Markham), Montreal (the City of Brossard) and Vancouver (the City of Richmond). Two developments patterns are apparent in suburban Chinatowns. One is represented by CMAs like Toronto and Vancouver, which already had a large Chinese population before the 2000s; these CMAs experienced less land expansion in suburban Chinese communities but more intensification of these communities. The other development pattern includes CMAs such as Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa where the Chinese population is not as large as in Toronto or Vancouver; these cities have experienced wider suburbanization of the Chinese communities in terms of spreading further out in the suburbs, but little intensification in terms of the concentration of the Chinese population. Finally, I analyze the social, cultural, economic and political impacts of the emergence of suburban Chinatowns in Chapter 5. I first compare the demographics and other key indicators of suburban and downtown Chinatowns in each selected CMA to reveal, through comparative analysis, three development patterns. The first pattern is represented by the suburban Chinatowns in Vancouver and Toronto. These suburban Chinatowns are already well-developed and are more likely to cause the decline of the downtown Chinatown by competing over commercial and human resources; the second one is represented by the suburban Chinatowns in Calgary and Montreal, which are on the way to be well-established but are not developed enough to threaten the status of the downtown Chinatowns; and the last pattern in that of the suburban Chinatowns in Edmonton and Ottawa, which are just starting to develop wand where the downtown Chinatowns are still the heart of the local Chinese community. Other findings on the impacts of the suburban Chinatowns are identified. The suburban Chinatowns attract more Chinese immigrants compared to the downtown Chinatowns, which ultimately leads to the decline of the downtown Chinatowns in some CMAs. Issues such as racial segregation, racism, and discrimination are appearing. The “language barrier,” Chinese-only signs and a large number of Chinese immigrants have caused outcries in the local community in these suburban Chinatowns. Suburban Chinatown has undoubtedly changed the political environment and legislation in some CMAs as well. These impacts are useful for planners to understand the future development of suburban Chinatowns."@eng

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