Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Geography & Environmental Studies

Faculty/School

Faculty of Arts

First Advisor

Alfred Hecht

Advisor Role

Thesis Supervisor

Second Advisor

Bruce Young

Advisor Role

Thesis Supervisor

Abstract

This study is concerned with six ethnic groups in the province of Ontario: the British, considered the “core group”, and the French, Italian, Indo-Chinese, Indo-Pakistani and Caribbean, the “peripheral groups.”

The principal interest of the research has been to study the ethnic mosaic in two ways, both in a core-periphery context. It was hypothesised that there has been persistence of socio-economic stratification between the British core and the peripheral groups. This thesis analyzes variation in the occupation-income between and within the ethnic immigrant groups.

The secondary objective is to examine these groups spatially, that is, in terms of a southern core and a northern periphery. Ten municipalities represent the core: Ottawa-Carleton, Durham, York, Toronto, Peel, Hamilton-Wentworth, Niagara, Haldimand-Norfolk, Essex and Middlesex. Ten counties represent the northern periphery: Algoma, Cochrane, Glengarry, Prescott, Russell, Lennox and Addington, Hastings, Timiskaming, Rainy River and Kenora. The data used in this study are from Statistics Canada, Special Computer Runs of the 1981 and 1971 censuses.

The research found that the vertical mosaic continues to exist much as it did in the late nineteenth century. Ethnic job segregation has prevailed; however, in certain occupations the persistance of the core-periphery structure is less significant, reflecting integration and assimilation to a certain extent.

Spatially, a core-periphery structure is even more evident now than earlier. The southern core of Ontario is the first choice of most recent immigrants. The diverse economic base of the south attracts more immigrants than the peripheral north, particularly those immigrants arriving in Canada after the Second World War who possess higher education and skills than earlier immigrants.

Convocation Year

1986

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