Cities And Immigration

All over the world immigration is one of the most urgent political issues, creating tensions and unrest as well as questions of justice and fairness. Academics as well as politicians have been relating to the question of how states should cope with immigrants; but 96% of immigrants end up in cities, and in Europe and the USA, two thirds of the immigrants settle in 7 or 8 cities. Indeed, most of us encounter with immigrants as city-zens, in our everydaylife, rather than as citizens of states. Should cities issue visas to immigrants when the state is reluctant to do so? Should immigrants vote in local elections before naturalization? What can be learnt fromcities which successfully integrate immigrants? This book addresses the question of migration and integration as a question of urban policies. It discusses questions which have been rarely considered in academic literature, and it is based on hundreds of interviews with city dwellers around the world.

Since the 1960s, new and more diverse waves of immigrants have changed the demographic composition and the landscapes of North American cities and their suburbs. The Housing and Economic Experiences of Immigrants in U.S. and Canadian Cities is a collection of essays examining how recent immigrants have fared in getting access to jobs and housing in urban centres across the continent. Using a variety of methodologies, contributors from both countries present original research on a range of issues connected to housing and economic experiences. They offer both a broad overview and a series of detailed case studies that highlight the experiences of particular communities. This volume demonstrates that, while the United States and Canada have much in common when it comes to urban development, there are important structural and historical differences between the immigrant experiences in these two countries.

The United States is an immigrant nation—nowhere is the truth of this statement more evident than in its major cities. Immigrants and their children comprise nearly three-fifths of New York City’s population and even more of Miami and Los Angeles. But the United States is also a nation with entrenched racial divisions that are being complicated by the arrival of newcomers. While immigrant parents may often fear that their children will “disappear” into American mainstream society, leaving behind their ethnic ties, many experts fear that they won’t—evolving instead into a permanent unassimilated and underemployed underclass. Inheriting the City confronts these fears with evidence, reporting the results of a major study examining the social, cultural, political, and economic lives of today’s second generation in metropolitan New York, and showing how they fare relative to their first-generation parents and native-stock counterparts. Focused on New York but providing lessons for metropolitan areas across the country, Inheriting the City is a comprehensive analysis of how mass immigration is transforming life in America’s largest metropolitan area. The authors studied the young adult offspring of West Indian, Chinese, Dominican, South American, and Russian Jewish immigrants and compared them to blacks, whites, and Puerto Ricans with native-born parents. They find that today’s second generation is generally faring better than their parents, with Chinese and Russian Jewish young adults achieving the greatest education and economic advancement, beyond their first-generation parents and even beyond their native-white peers. Every second-generation group is doing at least marginally—and, in many cases, significantly—better than natives of the same racial group across several domains of life. Economically, each second-generation group earns as much or more than its native-born comparison group, especially African Americans and Puerto Ricans, who experience the most persistent disadvantage. Inheriting the City shows the children of immigrants can often take advantage of policies and programs that were designed for native-born minorities in the wake of the civil rights era. Indeed, the ability to choose elements from both immigrant and native-born cultures has produced, the authors argue, a second-generation advantage that catalyzes both upward mobility and an evolution of mainstream American culture. Inheriting the City leads the chorus of recent research indicating that we need not fear an immigrant underclass. Although racial discrimination and economic exclusion persist to varying degrees across all the groups studied, this absorbing book shows that the new generation is also beginning to ease the intransigence of U.S. racial categories. Adapting elements from their parents’ cultures as well as from their native-born peers, the children of immigrants are not only transforming the American city but also what it means to be American.

Using a unique analytical framework based on host–stranger relations, this book explores the response of cities to the arrival and settlement of labour immigrants. Comparing the local policies of four cities – Paris, Amsterdam, Rome and Tel Aviv – Michael Alexander charts the development of migrant policies over time and situates them within the broader social context. Grounded in multi-city, multi-domain empirical findings, the work provides a fuller understanding of the interaction between cities and their migrant populations. Filling a gap in existing literature on migrant policy between national-level theorizing and local-level study, the book will provide an important basis for future research in the area.

This book examines immigration to small cities throughout Canada. It explores the distinct challenges brought about by the influx of people to urban communities which typically have less than 100,000 residents. The essays are organized into four main sections: partnerships, resources, and capacities; identities, belonging, and social networks; health, politics, and diversity, and Francophone minority communities. Taken together, they provide a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary perspective on the contemporary realities of immigration to small urban locations. Readers will discover how different groups of migrants, immigrants, and Francophone minorities confront systemic discrimination; how settlement agencies and organizations develop unique strategies for negotiating limited resources and embracing opportunities brought about by changing demographics; and how small cities work hard to develop inclusive communities and respond to social exclusions. In addition, each essay includes a case study that highlights the topic under discussion in a particular city or region, from Brandon, Manitoba to the Thompson-Nicola Region in British Columbia, from Peterborough, Ontario to the Niagara Region. As a complement to metropolitan-based works on immigration in Canada, this collection offers an important dimension in migration studies that will be of interest to academics, researchers, as well as policymakers and practitioners working on immigrant integration and settlement.

This books examines the relationship between migrants and cities in a time of massive urban restructuring, finding that locality matters in migration research and migrants matter in the reconfiguration of contemporary cities.

Ontario receives the majority of newcomers to Canada and its cities are a locus of diversity. Recognizing that the building and sustenance of "welcoming communities" is as much a local project as a national and provincial one, this volume explores the activities of municipal governments in Ontario as well as those of a number of other important "social forces" situated at the local level. Twelve city case studies are guided by a common template to facilitate comparisons and allow for an overall mapping of the players and a better estimation of the investments -- human and financial – that are required for the successful integration and inclusion of newcomers and minorities in Ontario cities. The conclusion provides a sense of the relative success (or failure) that Ontario cities have had in the creation of welcoming and inclusive communities.

This work addresses the question of migration and integration as a question of urban policies.