East Asians of Canada - Settlements



East Asians have always been and continue to be mostly urban. Early Chinese and Japanese immigrants tended to form distinct ethnic communities—"Chinatowns" and "Little Tokyos"—in large cities. Because of their larger numbers, the Chinatowns have been more visible and have drawn more attention. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, these communities were typical urban immigrant ghettos. Since the 1950s, as the Chinese and Japanese populations in Canada have increased and become more mobile spatially and socially, the urban communities have become social, Political, and symbolic centers as well as residential ones. At the same time, as discrimination has lessened, more Chinese and Japanese have chosen to live outside the traditional communities. For the Japanese, Toronto has in some ways replaced Vancouver as the center of Japanese culture in Canada. Koreans and Filipinos have also settled mainly in urban areas (two-thirds of Filipinos live in the Toronto area), but they have not formed distinctive residential enclaves. Filipinos, perhaps more so than the other groups, have settled in the suburbs.


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