2. Urban Studies

Urban studies, while obviously having a major urban focus, has generated relatively little research dealing with immigration per se. Thus there is according to the review relatively little that "is known." Urban studies as presented through the citations in the review includes disciplines such as urban geography, as well as sociology, anthropology, economics, etc.

a. state of knowledge

The origins of urban studies lie with urban sociology, as in the "Chicago School" and its leader Robert Park. That tradition was assimilationist in its approach, both in terms of predictions and prescriptions for minorities. ( But ironically, in his day Park and his associates were strongly anti-racist and pro-immigration. They believed in the biological equality of all nations and ethnic groups, so that immigrants would be able to integrate successfully and become American. Paternalistic to be sure, but anti-racist.)

By the 1960s, both ethnicity and ethnic neighbourhoods were rediscovered in the city, which refined the assumption of unidirectional assimilation. No longer is the city assumed to exert a singular homogenizing impact on minority groups.

In Canada most research looking at immigrants and cities focuses on Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. But it is also important to note that roughly 20% of the population of Hamilton, London, Calgary and Victoria are foreign born.

The review suggests that the plight of immigrant women in particular has received a great deal of attention in the urban studies (largely geography) literature. The plight of immigrant women of colour has revealed the operation of multiple sources of jeopardy. These include low education levels, racism, economic restructuring resulting from globalization, and cultural and emotional insecurities.

Residential segregation is persistent or increasing in Canadian cities, though levels are less than in comparable American cities between blacks and whites. But little is known about the dynamics of the processes in Canada. Some studies have examined the link between immigration/ethnicity and urban labour markets, which have confirmed the presence of barriers and inequalities facing some groups.

b. research agenda

There is a need for more studies of the impact of immigration on housing prices, real estate markets, etc. There are also no published studies of the housing quality of immigrant residences in general, and specific sub-groups in particular. Evidence suggests that some groups, such as Caribbeans, have inferior quality housing than do other groups, such as Italians.

Give the movement of immigrants to the three largest cities and to smaller urban centres, clearly there is a need to integrate urban studies with immigration more than has been the case in the past.

There has been an infusion of post-modern perspectives in the field. These include studies of the cultural politics of cities, as these can impact on the use of space and the operation of neighbourhoods. This work is called the "new cultural geography." Cases can range from issues such as the analysis of "monster homes" in Vancouver to studies of the impact and perception of Caribana in Toronto. It is not clear how the work in this tradition can be operationalized for policy purposes. But it has raised our awareness of the symbolic as well as material/political importance of housing and the way immigration challenges the use of urban public space.

c. methodological issues

Beginning in 1960s, urban studies became heavily quantitative, using computers and analyzing cities, census tracts, etc. These methods supplanted earlier pioneering ethnographic and qualitative work in the field. New preferred methods were social area analysis, factorial ecologies and discriminant analyses. These use many variables to create discrete factors that can describe an urban phenomenon. But the review claims these methods have fallen out of fashion, because they are too descriptive and cannot deal with processes of dynamic change and attitudes or micro-behaviours, in the way ethnographies and even popular or journalistic accounts, can.

The review also points out a difficulty found in other disciplines as well -- that of terminology. The terms "immigrant, ethnicity, and race" are socially constructed. For example, ethnicity should be seen not as something inherited as a static characteristic or an ascribed characteristic, but as a fluid trait, negotiated as responses to social situations. What is unclear is how this important insight would be incorporated into research design and policy relevant studies.

The "ecological fallacy" plagues research in urban studies. A finding which may operate at the level of a Census Metropolitan Area may not apply at the level of a municipality, a census tract, a neighbourhood, a block, or among individuals. One way to mitigate that would be to try to combine quantitative studies with qualitative or ethnographic work.

Finally, there is an important need for comparative studies of Canadian cities, both within Canada and between Canadian and other cities.