Ethnic Neighborhoods

Characteristics of Ethnic Neighborhoods

Ethnic neighbourhoods are culturally distinct from whatever is considered the "norm" in a given urban area.

The most obvious outward cultural markers of ethnic neighbourhoods are the cultural traits of language, religion, food, and sometimes dress, followed by commercial activities, schools, and so forth.

Language

Neighbourhoods inhabited by ethnic minorities where there is commercial activity are easily recognizable by signs on businesses and other buildings in a language other than the dominant language of the region. Streets signs may even be bilingual. Residential neighbourhoods may be harder to discern if there are few signs. However, the predominance of the spoken ethnic language is another typical marker.

Religion

Places of worship are usually prominent features of the landscape and often the first indication to the outsider that they are in or approaching an ethnic neighbourhood. A mosque in a neighbourhood inhabited by people from ethnic groups that practice Islam; a Hindu, Sikh, or Buddhist temple; a Christian church: these may be centrally important anchors of an ethnic neighbourhood.

Fig. 1 - Ukrainian Orthodox church in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada

Food

In many countries, outsiders visit ethnic neighbourhoods to sample distinct cuisines. Larger and more cohesive neighbourhoods don't just contain "ethnic restaurants" but also grocery stores and even farmers' markets. People of the same ethnicity as an ethnic neighbourhood's inhabitants will often travel hours from their homes to shop for groceries there.

Dress

Many ethnic neighbourhoods are inhabited by people who dress the same as people in the dominant culture outside the neighbourhood. However, the dress of particularly religious people, such as Orthodox Jewish rabbis or Muslim imams, may be characteristics that reveal a neighbourhood's identity.

In cities with a high percentage of ethnic minorities, including many recent immigrants, it is also common to see older people from places where non-Western dress still predominates, such as many countries in Africa and the Muslim World, wearing non-Western clothes such as colourful robes and turbans. Meanwhile, younger people may be wearing jeans and t-shirts.

Some styles of dress in the cultural landscapes are highly conflictive in ethnic neighbourhoods. Probably the most famous in the West are the burqa, hijab, and other coverings that women wear. While some Western countries allow all forms of clothing, others (e.g, France and Belgium) discourage or ban their use. Similarly, ethnic neighbourhoods in conservative, non-Western countries where immigrants from outside the region live may not be exempt from laws banning certain styles of women's clothing or even prohibiting the appearance of women unaccompanied by men in public.

Purpose of Ethnic Neighborhoods

Ethnic neighbourhoods serve many purposes for their inhabitants. Though they are not, of course, solely limited to specific ethnic groups, these may comprise, in some cases, over 90% of the residents.

The overarching purpose of ethnic neighbourhoods is to reinforce cultural identity and protect against cultural erosion and loss. They allow diaspora populations to recreate in some form the most important aspects of the cultural landscapes of their homelands.

This maintenance of cultural identity may be particularly necessary where high degrees of discrimination exist outside ethnic enclaves. People may not be allowed or at least encouraged to practice certain key elements of their culture elsewhere. Ethnic neighbourhoods allow people to express themselves freely without fear of discrimination. People of non-English-speaking cultures will not be reminded to "speak English!" when they are in areas where their own culture predominates.

The preservation of identity happens through the sheer concentration of people. A few people do not make an ethnic neighbourhood, so the more people an ethnic enclave can attract, the more vibrant it can become.

Ethnic neighbourhoods can lose population over time as new immigrants accrue wealth and younger generations assimilate or simply move away to more desirable locations such as the suburbs.

Ethnic Neighborhoods Importance

Ethnic neighbourhoods are critically important for their preservation of diaspora cultures as well as the opportunity to expose people from the dominant culture to cultural diversity.

In addition to the maintenance of cultural identity, ethnic neighbourhoods also serve important economic and political functions.

Economically, ethnic neighbourhoods are where businesses that might have little success in the broader landscape are able to thrive. These range from places to send money to loved ones back home, to travel agencies, grocery stores, convenience stores, private schools, and indeed any other specific, niche economic activity that might not be possible elsewhere.

Politically, the demography of ethnic neighbourhoods means that concentrations of people of the same or similar minority culture serve as a voter base that may be large enough to attain representation and, at the very least, will serve as a much better source of political pressure than a scattered group of people would. That is to say, people of any affiliation can come together online or lobby a government as a group, but the possession of a cultural landscape in a certain place provides strength in numbers and visibility that is difficult for decision-makers to ignore.

Ethnic Neighborhoods Examples

Two storied ethnic neighbourhoods from opposite sides of the US bookend one country's experience.

Chinatown (San Francisco)

Chinatown is a near-legendary ethnic neighbourhood with some perhaps surprising statistics. Though not as large or as densely populated as Chinatown in New York City, where up to 100,000 people reside, San Francisco's oldest (founded 1848) concentration of people of Asian ethnicity is one of the world's most important Chinese communities outside China.

Fig. 2 - Celebration attracts tourists in Chinatown, San Francisco

Chinatown is not the only place in the Bay Area where Chinese live by any means. But ethnically Chinese people, as well as hordes of tourists, descend on the 24-block neighbourhood in such numbers to shop and eat that congestion is nearly a 24-hour-a-day problem.

Chinatown has always been a safe haven for Chinese, who, particularly in the 1800s, suffered massive racism and discrimination in the US even though their labour was critically important for the growth of the country.

Infamous for crime and human trafficking, the neighbourhood burned to the ground in the Great Fire of 1906 but was rebuilt in situ in spite of protests by many anti-Chinese San Franciscans.

Tourism...and Poverty

With many ups and downs over 175 years, Chinatown's fortunes have seemed better in recent decades with the boom in tourism. However, Chinatown remains one of the most impoverished locations in San Francisco, made worse by the steep cost of living in the city. Its 20000 primarily elderly residents, 30% living below the poverty line, are overwhelmingly monolingual and do not speak English. The median yearly income for a household is just US$20000, a quarter of the average for San Francisco. How can people possibly survive here?

The answer is that close to 70% live in single-room-occupancy hotel rooms. This is the sole way for low-income people to enjoy and contribute to a sort of miniature China, with its social clubs, foods impossible to get elsewhere, places to practice T'ai Chi and play Chinese board games, and all the other activities that help preserve authentic Chinese culture.

Little Italy (New York City)

The influence of Italian culture on the US cannot be understated. Italian cuisine, remade into American forms, is a mainstay of popular culture. Italian-American culture, stereotyped in myriad movies and TV shows from Jersey Shore to The Godfather, has survived and even thrived in households and neighbourhoods across the country.

But if you go looking for it in Little Italy, you may be quite surprised at what you find. As the quote above suggests, Little Italy is a bit disappointing in that respect.

Fig. 3 - Italian restaurant in Little Italy

Here's what happened: Mulberry Street in Lower Manhattan was where the poorest and most disadvantaged European immigrants landed after getting through Ellis Island in the late 1800s. It was never the area with the most Italians in New York City, but its lawlessness and poverty were legendary. Italians were discriminated against by the broader white population of the US, but nevertheless, managed to prosper economically and assimilate rapidly. They got out of Little Italy as fast as they could!

Now, the original Little Italy is part of Chinatown, which thrives as an ethnic enclave. Very few ethnic Italians are left; it is more than anything a tourist trap designed as a stereotypical Italian neighbourhood. The vast majority of residents are not Italian.