Ethnoburb

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An ethnoburb is a suburban residential and business area in North America with a significant concentration of a particular ethnic minority population. The term was first coined in 1997 by Dr. Wei Li, then assistant professor of Geography and Asian American Studies at the University of Connecticut, in a paper examining the suburban Chinese population in Los Angeles, California.^[1] The formation of an ethnoburb may be attributed to a combination of reasons, including changes in international politics and the global economy, changes in U.S. national policies, and shifts in a variety of local city conditions. Ethnoburb communities have extensive external connections to the globalised mainstream economy, leading to high socioeconomic levels in its residents. An ethnoburb acts as a social hub and a place where immigrants may work and do business within their own networks. The formation of ethnoburbs also have an effect on the cultural and political characteristics of a city. In cities like San Francisco, Vancouver, and Toronto, for example, Chinese immigrants have built large houses and malls catering to Chinese businesses, altering the city landscape.^[2]