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Which is more ethnically diverse: North York or Scarborough?

Which is more ethnically diverse?

  • North York

    Votes: 7 58.3%

  • Scarborough

    Votes: 5 41.7%
  • Total voters
    12
K

King of Kensington

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Scarborough has the highest % of visible minorities and foreign born, but North York may have a broader array overall.

Which of the two "outer boroughs" is more diverse?
 
In terms of foreign born, the numbers are pretty close in the high 50s %.

Which one has the longer history of being ethnically diverse -- I'm guessing North York?
 
Scarborough seems to display, show or at least play up its ethnic diversity a bit more. I get the impression that teenagers and young people in Scarborough are more associated with having an ethnolect/slang with diverse influences (akin to "Multicultural London English" in the UK) than North Yorkers.
 
wild goose chase said:
Scarborough seems to display, show or at least play up its ethnic diversity a bit more. I get the impression that teenagers and young people in Scarborough are more associated with having an ethnolect/slang with diverse influences (akin to "Multicultural London English" in the UK) than North Yorkers.
Click to expand...

Scarborough is more working class and more isolated from the rest of the city.
 
King of Kensington said:
Scarborough has the highest % of visible minorities and foreign born, but North York may have a broader array overall.
Click to expand...

I think by representation of visible minorities/racial diversity (black, "Asian" etc.) as people have conventionally defined, Scarborough wins but North York has larger numbers of certain groups (eg. Jewish, some immigrant European communities, and perhaps Persian too?) that Scarborough doesn't really. I'm not entirely sure but I also think that Scarborough's black communities are mainly Caribbean, while North York's black communities come from more regions?

King of Kensington said:
North York for sure. Scarborough was pretty "non-ethnic" until around 1980 or so.
Click to expand...

If that's the case, then perhaps some ethnic groups whose immigration peaked before the 80s would be found more in North York than Scarborough, which perhaps explains why North York in addition to lots of visible minorities, has also more of what some stateside would call "white ethnics" (though we Torontonians, or Canadians more broadly don't seem to use the term). But of course, people can move around so just because a community settles in one place during their peak of immigration doesn't mean it'll stay there. Indeed, some of the places I've grown up in North York seem to have changed demographics considerably within the couple of decades or so.
 
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I chose North York for its broader array. Besides Tamils it's hard to think of a group that's well represented in Scarborough but North York. But North York has a lot of groups that aren't that well represented in Scarborough: Italians, Jews, Russians, Italians, Latin Americans, Iranians, Koreans etc.
 
North York has a wider range of ethnicities, I think, but it can be a bit segregated. The neighbourhood I spent my elementary school years in was Jewish (mostly - the school I went to in JK/SK for sure. Over half the kids were gone during Rosh Hashanah), Chinese and Indian.
 
I wonder if people have tried to measure/examine segregation locally or by borough in Toronto before?

I get the impression that though more working class, Scarborough and Etobicoke seem to have less segregation (hence the late Ford's ability to use at least some identifiably authentic Jamaican Patois). Not sure if the general trend is for ethnic/racial segregation to increase or decrease with socio-economic status in the city (I get the impression often times more affluent means more segregated in North America).
 
prosperegal said:
North York has a wider range of ethnicities, I think, but it can be a bit segregated. The neighbourhood I spent my elementary school years in was Jewish (mostly - the school I went to in JK/SK for sure. Over half the kids were gone during Rosh Hashanah), Chinese and Indian.
Click to expand...

North York east and west of the Allen Expressway/Dufferin are quite different in their ethnic makeup and class composition.

Scarborough may be less segregated overall - Chinese are very concentrated in Agincourt but other groups - South Asian, Caribbean etc. - are more spread around through the rest.
 
wild goose chase said:
I wonder if people have tried to measure/examine segregation locally or by borough in Toronto before?

I get the impression that though more working class, Scarborough and Etobicoke seem to have less segregation (hence the late Ford's ability to use at least some identifiably authentic Jamaican Patois). Not sure if the general trend is for ethnic/racial segregation to increase or decrease with socio-economic status in the city (I get the impression often times more affluent means more segregated in North America).
Click to expand...

I would think so. A lot of ethnic groups - Italians in Vaughan, Jews in North York and Thornhill, Chinese in Agincourt and Markham etc. are segregated by choice.

That's very different from where you live (lived?). There's a huge swath of poor, neglected neighborhoods that are basically all African American on the south side of Chicago.
 
King of Kensington said:
I would think so. A lot of ethnic groups - Italians in Vaughan, Jews in North York and Thornhill, Chinese in Agincourt and Markham etc. are segregated by choice.

That's very different from where you live (lived?). There's a huge swath of poor, neglected neighborhoods that are basically all African American on the south side of Chicago.
Click to expand...

Yeah, segregation in Toronto seems to be more by choice than most US cities and some poor neighbourhoods in Toronto (Jane and Finch etc.) are typically quite diverse and full of working class immigrants, refugees, and newcomers from many backgrounds. The pattern of Black (often West Indian but also others like Somalis, etc.) and South Asian communities side by side in Scarborough or Etobicoke is something you also probably don't see as much of in US cities, where "Asians" and Blacks seem to live farther apart.

The South side of Chicago has been African American for over a century, while many of Scarborough's racial demographics might barely be as old as the lifetime of the "Millenial" generation, and it was just only starting to become diverse when Mike Myers was starring in Wayne's World (which though based on his hometown, is set in Chicago's suburbs).

Also, it'll be interesting to see how things will change in the future. Many of Toronto's boroughs are probably starting to see ethnic communities have their second and third generation come of age -- if some of this segregation is initially by choice, you'd expect these later generations to show different patterns than the recent immigrants.
 
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Not directly related to ethno-cultural "segregation" per se, but this article seems to be arguing that ethnic malls geared towards the population of "ethnoburbs" have already been saturated and many, including younger generations often shop at more mainstream shopping centres.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...l-of-the-ethnic-mall/article4277988/?page=all

Could this be a sign that we'd expect to see some de-segregation of some ethnic enclaves as their Canadian-born generations grow up (perhaps 20-30 years) and feel that they no longer have to live near those who are "like them" based on roots alone? Or we would still continue to see fresher "new" ethnic enclaves continue as long as the GTA attracts newer immigrants at a steady pace -- time will tell.
 
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