The housing preferences and location choices of second-generation South Asians living in ethnic enclaves

Abstract

Canada has experienced the development of suburban ethnic enclaves by established immigrant diaspora groups surrounding major metropolitan centres. However, less is known regarding the housing and location preferences of their maturing offspring population, known as the second-generation. This paper seeks to explain the housing preferences and location choices of second-generation South Asians residing in Brampton's ethnic enclaves, a suburban city on the periphery of Toronto. This research draws on the home leaving process and integrates the theoretical perspectives of ethnic enclaves and the life cycle. A telephone survey conducted in Brampton's ethnic enclaves suggests a dominant preference of low-density, detached-style dwellings in suburban areas. The life cycle perspective has proven to be a powerful explanatory tool during the household-formation phase, but does not appear to be valuable during the independent-living stage, since ethnic enclave residency seems to persist. The importance of familial ties in the South-Asian culture, the growth of ethnic enclaves, traditional ideas of socioeconomic success and life cycle values during family-formation shape preferences for second-generation South-Asian-Canadians.

Keywords:

• Brampton
• second generation
• South Asians
• ethnic enclaves
• housing
• suburbs
• settlement
• life cycle

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank all research participants for their time and contributions to the study, in addition to Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and CERIS for funding.

Notes

Second generations are those who are born in Canada, with at least one foreign-born parent (Statistics Canada 2006).

In 2006, 54.2% of Canada's South Asian population lived in the Toronto CMA which includes the City of Brampton (Statistics Canada 2006).

Other criticisms include that these theories were developed based on the experiences of European settlement groups, and may not be the same for recent visible minority groups who have distinctive cultural backgrounds and structural labour market experiences (Fong and Wilkes 2003). Also, these theories assume that socioeconomic mobility can be used as a measure of integration into society (Balakrishnan and Hou 1999, p. 201, Boyd 2002, Hiebert 2000).

Gentrification is when neighbourhoods undergo increased socioeconomic achievement of residents and rising home prices from renovations make these neighbourhoods highly desirable.

Some of the possible negative impacts from ethnic segregation are: constrained housing and employment choices/opportunities, emergence of a ‘ghetto’, reduced social interactions with others (possibly creating a mono-culture community), impedes acculturation, and the possibility of stereotyping or discrimination. Some of the potential benefits in continued clustering are: sustaining ethnic economies, maximizing social interactions, retaining cultural heritage and community organizations, and providing gainful employment or access to other resources within the neighbourhood.

Similar arguments were made in Ghosh's (2007) study on different sociospatial patterns and outcomes of South Asian subgroups such as Indian Bengalis and Bangladeshis, and in Lo and Wang's (1997) study on subgroup variances within the broad category of ‘Chinese’ immigrants (Mendez 2009b, p. 102).

The higher educational attainment level of second generations actually accounts for about one year of education more than the third-and-higher generation.

Some argue that tight knit communities may encourage young immigrants to pursue higher education through the sharing of similar values and obligations, social support systems, a strong sense of family, and the monitoring of children's activities in the community.

Others have borrowed from this thesis with more detailed phases; see (Foote et al. 1960, Murdie et al. 1999).

The average price of a dwelling was $404,104 in Brampton versus $459,508 in Mississauga or $553,923 in Toronto year to date for 2012 as of June according to MLS prices from the Toronto Real Estate Board (Board 2012).

Due to the nature of the survey methods, this CT did not return any results, and for that reason is not included in the discussion.

In their study, ‘20% of the housing stock in the fastest growing South Asian enclave was built between 2001 and 2006, much higher than the CMA average of 11.5%’ (Qadeer and Agrawal 2010, p. 330).

Much of the data on education level, the type of housing, average age, etc., though possible to access, could not be pre-determined through statistical data analysis due to cost limitations.

This total also includes 10 surveys completed by focus group participants. Three focus groups were also conducted with a total of 15 participants with an average age of 22.8. Participants were recruited using a snowball method and followed the same eligibility criteria as the telephone survey. Three key informant interviews were also conducted using personal networks; one with a local real estate agent, one with a regional planner, and one with a local private sector planner. All focus groups and interviews were conducted by the researcher, audio recorded, and held in a local community centre or location of the participants' choice.

The remainder reside with their spouse/partner (9%), with spouse/partner and parents (6%), with extended family (2%), and friends/others (1%).

The remainder had completed a postgraduate degree/ other (4%), masters (2%) or a PhD (1%).

The other 29% were completing a college diploma (18%), postgraduate degree (5%), masters (4%) or a PhD (2%).

Many of the participants had or were currently studying business (39.4%) or science (16.7%). Also, 74.5% of participants were employed and of that group, 60.5% of them had jobs that related to what they studied in school. Most of the cities where people worked were local. The majority (62.3%) of participants were employed within the Region of Peel (32.5% in Brampton and 29.9% in Mississauga) and 15.6% in Toronto.

Kim and Boyd's (2009) study noted that ‘With the exception of South Asians, all other non-White groups are more likely than Whites to own condos versus other housing in Toronto’ (p. 11).

Investigating only one ethnocultural group within a geographically specific community limits this research's applicability to other groups and cities as it may not have an adequate number of cases (Winston 1997). Furthermore, the cross sectional quality of this research assumes that social phenomena are static over time but preferences typically change and this relationship may only be ‘true’ under certain conditions (Baxter 2010). This analysis is also hampered by small sample numbers.