Ethnicity and the Social Context: The Residential Integration of Iranians, Jamaicans, the Vietnamese and the Chinese

Ann H. Kim, Brown University

This paper investigates ethnic residential integration in a comparative perspective. Contemporary patterns suggest that immigrant integration can follow different paths, expected to vary by ethnic group and by the local and national context of host societies. That is, the extent to which immigrant integration follows the assimilation, stratification or retention model, or some combination, depends upon both ethnic factors and the social context. To elucidate these processes, four groups are analyzed, Iranians, Jamaicans, the Chinese, and the Vietnamese, each in two metropolitan areas, in two countries, Canada and the US. The proximity of Canada and the US in geography and experience provides the opportunity for comparative work between the two places. Using tabular data from the 2000 US census and the 2001 Canadian census, this study examines whether there are systematic differences in the factors that lead to residential distinctiveness for each of the four groups.