Economic changes in Canadian neighborhoods

Abstract

In this paper, we addressed three questions. First, how transient are poor neighborhoods? Second, is the distribution of different racial and ethnic groups affected unequally by changes in the economic status of neighborhoods? Third, what is the relative importance of the neighborhood life cycle, invasion-succession and spatial effect models in explaining the transition of poor neighborhoods? Based on 1986 and 1991 Canadian census data, we found that the poverty rates of a substantial percentage of neighborhoods changed during the five years. We also found a consistent pattern that early immigrant groups (i.e., British, Western, and Northern Europeans) have the highest percentage of members living in non-poor neighborhoods. At the other end of the continuum, two visible minority groups, blacks and East and Southeast Asians, have the highest percentage of members living in very poor neighborhoods. In addition, as suggested by the invasion-succession model, the proportion of visible minorities in neighborhoods strongly affects the neighborhood poverty levels. Implications of the findings are discussed.