Citation:
Date Presented:
February 8, 2013Abstract:
Multiculturalism is often lauded as the best model—or at least the best alternative to the assimilationist model—of immigrant integration. A response to traditional understandings of Anglo-conformity, it was adopted as official policy by Canada in 1985. This thesis investigates the unintended consequences of the multiculturalistic approach on immigrant settlement patterns, and finds that it enables spatial segregation and social distance between ethnic groups on a city-wide and neighborhood level. Using data from primarily qualitative interviews, I explain the negative side effects of multiculturalism on settlement trajectories and quality of life among recent immigrants in a downtown and an inner-suburban neighborhood of Toronto. More specifically, I explain how ethnic residential clustering facilitated by multiculturalism limits the agency of recent immigrants to choose their dwellings and neighborhoods upon arrival, resulting in their settlement in inappropriate housing. The segregation of ethnic groups on a neighborhood-level perpetuates social and geographic distance between them, and further hinders the immigrants’ subsequent residential decision-making when they seek to get out of the reception neighborhoods. The immigrant settlement experience in this city with a 50 percent foreign-born population is shown to be constrained, and this mosaic that was supposed to create a harmonious picture is turning out to be a cacophonous collection of tiles. I am still working on detailing the settlement aspirations and future outlook of my subjects, which I hope will shed light on long-term consequences of multiculturalism on the immigrant integration process.