Search

In the last few decades, as Toronto neighbourhoods have become more diverse, they simultaneously have become more inequitable. Poverty and income disparity have increasingly become concentrated along neighbourhood lines. There is, however, little research on the discursive and experiential explorations of people living in these neighbourhoods and how these spaces are produced. This paper centers the culturalist constructions of space and its implications for racialized young people's negotiations of belonging in an east-end Toronto 'priority neighbourhood.' Drawing on a critical framing analysis of newspaper discourses, this paper illustrates how young people who inhabit these spaces are differentially positioned. Through interview data, I examine how youth and youth service providers living in Malvern (a 'priority neighbourhood') negotiate production and representation of racialized spaces. Au cours des dernières décennies, plus les voisinages de Toronto deviennent plus diversifiés, simultanément ils sont devenus inéquitables. La pauvreté et la disparité des revenus se concentrent de plus en plus le long des quartiers voisins. Il existe cependant peu de recherches sur les explorations discursives et expérientielles des personnes vivant dans ces villes voisines et sur la façon dont ces espaces sont conçus. Cet article se concentre sur les constructions culturalistes de l'espace et ses implications dans les négociations racialisées des jeunes occupant un « quartier prioritaire » du nord-est de Toronto. En se basant sur une analyse critique du recadrage des discours médiatiques, cet article illustre comment les jeunes qui habitent ces espaces sont différemment positionnés. À travers les données des entretiens, j'examine comment les jeunes et les prestataires de services pour les jeunes vivant à Malvern (un « quartier prioritaire ») négocient la production et la représentation d'espaces racialisés. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public interest in the influence of neighbourhoods on immigrant integration in Canadian society has been growing in recent years; yet, there are few studies that explain the effect of neighbourhoods on immigrant experiences of exclusion in Canada. Drawing on in-depth interviews (12 males and 13 females) and a focus group discussion (five females and three males) conducted with Ghanaian immigrant youth between the ages of 18 to 30 from the Ghanaian community in the Jane and Finch neighbourhood of Toronto in May to June, 2011, this paper discusses the experiences of social and spatial exclusion among Ghanaian immigrant youth. Drawing on socio-spatial dialectics, the findings suggest that Ghanaian immigrant youth experiences of socio-spatial exclusion are intertwined in a dialectical process involving the Jane and Finch neighbourhood and the general public. In particular, the youth negotiate access to employment opportunities, shopping malls and counter exclusion through reformulation of resumes, and masking of their actual neighbourhoods. This paper fills an important gap in our knowledge of the lived experiences of African immigrant youth and contributes to our understanding of the dynamics of neighbourhood stigmatization and its impact on residents' integration into the larger society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiculturalism is a contested concept and policy in the current context. Many European leaders have declared its failure, and scholars have traced a global backlash against multicultural policies, especially in Europe. Canadians, on the other hand, are more likely to view it positively, as a badge of citizenship or belonging. Being multicultural has become closely intertwined with what it means to be Canadian, especially for immigrants and their children. The focus of this paper is to unpack these meanings of multiculturalism among one immigrant group, most of whom are now Canadians, and their children: Sri Lankan Tamils in the Greater Toronto Area. Our aim is to better understand how members of this group view the relationship between their Canadian and Tamil identities in the context of multiculturalism. In particular, we are interested in the 'uptake' of the concept, practice, and policy of multiculturalism among Sri Lankan Tamil newcomers to Canada. Drawing on interviews and focus groups with both immigrants (first generation) and Sri Lankan Tamils born in Canada (second generation), we illustrate some of the ways in which multiculturalism operates as frontstage behaviour and as a more tacit backstage concept among those in the Greater Toronto Tamil diaspora. We argue that Canadian multiculturalism functions as 'banal nationalism' in Canada, as daily practices of tacit nation-building are produced and repeated on a daily basis among Sri Lankan Tamil Canadians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]