An examination of the geographic and socioeconomic spaces of ethnic groups in Toronto a core-periphery perspective

The main interest of this study is the urban ethnic mosaic within the context of the core-periphery concept: its historical and spatial expressions of ethnic groups in Toronto. The study will focus on the socioeconomic contrasts—income, education, and occupation—between the major ethnic group and the subgroups. Two dimensions, those of ethnic mobility and socioeconomic characteristics, have been set up to inquire into geographic changes in ethnic groups over time and into the degree of socioeconomic polarity between the ethnic groups at one time. The basic data sources relevant to this study are both published and unpublished Canadian census data, from 1951 to 1976. It was found that the “urban ethnic mosaic” is still vertical in the sense that socioeconomic differences are closely linked to ethnicity. Also, traditional ethnic segregation in the city core tends to be perpetuated in the suburbs. Clearly the persistence of ethnic dimensions over time in a metropolitan structure reflects a complicated integration process of spatial, social and ideological elements