"Immigrant Family" by Tom Otterness

More new immigrants are choosing to settle in Canada’s biggest cities — between 2001 and 2006, 69 percent of Canada’s newcomers made either Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal their new home (compared with 40 percent in 1971). Today, 40 per cent of new immigrants to Canada put roots down in Toronto alone. But here’s the rub: whereas in the past newcomers would settle in the city’s core, these days they’re making the suburbs their home, with the more affluent moving to the newer 'burbs and the less well-off settling in Toronto’s aging inner-suburban areas.

These findings come from a recently released report by Robert A. Murdie from the Centre for Urban and Community Studies. And while they may not come as a huge surprise to many Torontonians, the trends certainly call to mind questions about how the city should respond to its changing demographics.

One big concern is the need to ensure that newcomers have easy access to much-needed support services. Since, in the past, most immigrants settled near the city’s core, the city’s core is precisely where many support services (including employment services, counseling services and ESL centres) still reside. Clearly, community hubs such as these need to be relocated closer to where the people they serve actually live. But since suburban areas are much more spread out, you can’t just plop them anywhere. Placing these amenities near transit routes is a big priority.

And so, for that matter, is improving public transit. The areas where the newcomers who are the least well off tend to settle are also poorly served by Toronto’s subway, bus and streetcar network, adding an extra challenge for refugees who likely don’t speak English as a first language, have less education and must also overcome discrimination based on their race.

“Failure to deliver these services, especially to newly arrived low-income immigrants, risks fueling social tensions that are increasing in other jurisdictions, especially certain West European cities,” writes Murdie.

With an even greater proportion of Canadian immigrants settling in Toronto, I say it’s time for city hall and our local politicians to up their efforts when it comes to reaching out to T.O.’s diverse constituency. Services need to be provided in numerous languages, and extra work needs to be put into giving newcomers a voice in local issues. If a politically active and engaged citizenry is the mark of a healthy democracy (and a healthy city, province or country), there’s cause for concern. Considering that a large proportion of Toronto residents don’t have the right to vote, our system as it stands now could be described as two-tiered — some people have the right, not to mention the ability, to participate more than others.

For more on Murdie’s report, check out yesterday's article outlining its findings in the Globe and Mail. Or download the real deal from the Centre for Urban and Community Studies’ website.

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