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Jason Zhong

Delineating Ethnoburbs: A Framework for Examining The Impacts of Ethnic Settlements on the Commercial and Political Landscape in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area © 2009

The purpose of this study was to explore the validity of the ethnoburb model in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA). The objective of the study was to develop a method of delineating ethnoburbs. In this regard, three considerations were taken into account. The population indicator utilized was the visible minority variable in the Canadian census; the defining critical mass applied was greater than 50 percent of the total population in a given area reporting visible minority status; and the geographies explored were the census subdivision, census tract and neighbourhood levels. This paper argues that neighbourhoods are a more appropriate level of geography than census tracts and census subdivisions when delineating ethnoburbs. Four areas of ethnoburb were delineated in the Toronto CMA using neighbourhoods as building blocks. When examining the location of Chinese and South Asian businesses, concentration inside ethnoburbs was evident. An association between ethnoburb minority group domination and the visible minority candidates that got elected into parliament was found. There

was a tendency for South Asian officials to become elected into the federal and provincial governments within the South Asian dominated ethnoburb; while there was a tendency for Chinese officials to become elected into the municipal (City of Toronto) and provincial governments within the Chinese dominated ethnoburb.

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