6. Dionne Brand’s Toronto, What We All Long For

Diversity, Our Strength' is the motto for which the global city of Toronto has become recognized and celebrated (Lo 2008: 122).This distinguishing slogan has come a long way from the once WASP-dominated 'Toronto, the Good' (Rosenthal 2011: 32).In the past 30 years, Toronto has transformed from an almost "exclusively white enclave" (Troper 2003: 20) to the immigrant city and role model of social integration it is today.Canadians are proud of Toronto and attempt to cross-sell this form of cultural diversity to different cities all over the world because this model of integration can function as a best practice for other countries and help promote prosperity (Kymlicka 1998: 3).The unique official government policy partially explains how Toronto has rapidly changed into the multicultural setting of today (Siemiatycki et al 2001: 1): indeed, "the World in a City" (Rosenthal 2011: 32).To fully grasp Toronto's evolution, the city's immigration story needs to be examined.Essentially, Toronto's population has changed from a homogenous to a heterogeneous one.Until the early twentieth century, Toronto's population consisted mainly of those of British descent (Siemiatycki et al 2001: 1).Between 1931 and 1996 however, the percentage of immigrants of British descent declined from 81 percent to just 16 percent (Siemiatycki et al 2001: 373) as the city grew in size and immigration policies were relaxed.Since the 1970s, for example, the percentage of immigrants from Asia and the Pacific as well as Africa and the Middle East has grown steadily.This growth is largely due to the 1976 Immigration Act aimed at the reunion of Canadian immigrant families, fostering of the Canadian economy, and supporting refugees and diasporas (Jansen et al 2003: 66f.).By the 1980s, Toronto's image had transformed into a culturally tolerant cosmopolitan city of 'polyethnic character' (Harney 1983: 1) of "a remarkably diverse ethnic, racial, linguistic and religious metropolis" (Siemiatycki et al 2001: 1).Toronto's strength is its diversity (Siemiatycki et al 2001: 454).Each year, Toronto attracts an average of 70,000 immigrants from close to 170 countries, and, as a result, more than one hundred languages are spoken in the city (Anisef et al 2003: 3f.).Between 1995 and 2001, Toronto was mainly shaped by Asian and Caribbean immigrants (Hoernig et al 2010: 155).Currently, the three largest ethnic groups in Toronto are Chinese (an estimated 450,000), Italians (an estimated 400,000), and Afro-Caribbean (an estimated 250,000) with Vietnamese immigrants making up one of the fastest-growing ethnic groups (Troper 2003: 20).Toronto is described as Canada's preeminent global city.In the Census Metropolitan Area, it features both Canada's highest rate of foreign-born population in 2006 (46.6 percent) and the highest rate of recent immigrants arriving between 1996 and 2006 (15.8 percent) (Langlois 2010: 448f.):448f.).Almost 50 percent of Toronto's inhabitants are thus foreign-born, highlighting the city's unique trait as a cultural hub and a so-called 'gateway city' for immigrants and transmigration.In contrast, in 1996, both New York and Los Angeles featured a smaller foreignborn population of 23 percent and 31 percent, respectively (Anisef et al 2003: 3).However, unlike those two North American cities, the Canadian metropolis has been largely disregarded in studies on urban complexity.Toronto is considered to be Canada's only global city (Hall 2010: 63).In 1986, it was the only Canadian city featured in Friedmann's classification of world cities and was categorized as second tier (1986).Nearly twenty years later, Taylor (2005) similarly considers Toronto an 'incipient' (Hall 2010: 63) leading world city of second class, following global cities such as New York and Los Angeles.In both studies, Toronto is in the same category as the North American cities of Miami and San Francisco.The city is ranked thirty-sixth in population and twentieth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP).Overall, it is ranked fourteenth in the recent Global Cities Index Methodology 2010 31 .Toronto is viewed as the Canadian 'high-connectivity gateway' (Taylor et al 2002; Taylor 2004: 92) in terms of economy, capital, and business locations.It is 31 The data used for the Global Cities Index Methodology is collected, analyzed, and evaluated by Foreign Policy, A.T. Kearney, and The Chicago Council of Global Affairs, taking various issues into account, such as business activity, human capital, information exchange and access to information, cultural experience, and their influence on global discourses.

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