Ó Copyright by Mark Edward Pfeifer (1999)

Abstract/Acknowledgements/Table of Contents - [ Chapters - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 ] -  Appendices - References Cited

This study has examined the adaptation of a fairly recently arrived, "visible minority" immigrant population of significant size to life in a large, contemporary North American metropolitan area. The research itself was intended to be broad and multi-dimensional in scope. It assessed both the internal character of the Vietnamese aggregate and the relationships of this ethnic population with the host society in the Toronto area. Throughout the study, considerable effort has been made to situate the adaptation experiences of persons of Vietnamese origin within the wider scholarly discourse pertaining to ethnic group adaptation. This concluding chapter will begin with a summary of some of the most compelling findings within each chapter and some possible contributions these results might provide to the literature on the Vietnamese in Canada as well as the broader ethnic studies field. The second portion of the chapter will involve a discussion of some of the implications of the results of this study for the major theoretical paradigms of immigrant adaptation. In the final section, suggestions for possible future avenues of research involving the Vietnamese and other fairly recently arrived immigrant groups will be posited.

The first portion of the study examined the internal dynamics of the Vietnamese aggregate residing in Toronto. Demographic characteristics, community organization, residential trajectories, and the role of ethnic institutions in the lives of Vietnamese were discussed. Period of arrival data clearly showed the relatively brief period of time the majority of Vietnamese have resided in Canada compared to the total population as well as most of the other minority groups living in the Toronto metropolitan area in 1991. More than 70% of the enumerated Vietnamese living in Toronto arrived in 1981 or later. The relative recency with which most Vietnamese have moved to Canada has very likely contributed to the population’s 1991 representation on a number of variables relative to the entire population and other minorities. These include the significant proportion of Vietnamese who could not speak either English or French, the overall share of the population who were immigrants (over 80%), as well as a high mobility rate over the past five years compared to other groups.

Duration of residence in Canada combined with the circumstances under which most Vietnamese came to Canada – either as refugees or family-sponsored immigrants – also has implications for the Vietnamese in terms of the gender, age, and educational profiles. Unlike the Toronto population as a whole or that of most other minority groups, the Vietnamese population possesses a gender imbalance strongly favouring men. The substantial majority of Vietnamese men enumerated in the census is a function of the disproportionate participation of males in the refugee flow. The large segment of the population which arrived as refugees strongly influences the age profile of the Vietnamese aggregate. The Vietnamese are generally a very young population.

The fact that many Vietnamese arrived in Canada as refugees or as a result of family sponsorship as opposed to as independent immigrants, also likely has had implications for the educational profile of the population. Relative to the entire population and most of the other minority groups, the Vietnamese were disproportionately represented at the lower educational levels. Conversely, the enumerated Vietnamese population was significantly underrepresented in the university level categories of educational achievement. The demographic profile of the population has significant implications for understanding the formal structure of community organization, residential trajectories, the role of ethnic institutions in adaptation and Vietnamese interactions with mainstream institutions including the labour market, the media and the criminal justice system.

The term "community" is best used in only the broadest sense when describing the diverse population of Vietnamese-origin residing in the Toronto area. Key characteristics observed to shape the organization of Vietnamese community life include age and generation, gender, ethnicity, religious affiliation, region of origin in Vietnam, socioeconomic status, date of arrival in Canada and political ideology.

It is particularly striking that in the case of the Vietnamese population, certain facets of differentiation appear to have become especially salient as they have meshed in the setting of Toronto. Region of origin, socioeconomic status, and to a certain extent, time of arrival all seem to play a part in the peripheral role persons of North Vietnamese origin encounter in community-based activities. Many individuals who came to Canada from North Vietnam were resettled from refugee camps in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Leaders of both secular and religious community groups also spoke in general terms of a sense of social distance related to perceived socioeconomic differences which inhibits interaction between persons of North Vietnamese origin and the Vietnam-born from the South and Central regions of the country.

While very difficult to measure in a systematic manner, there is evidence of a considerable degree of interaction and cross-organizational participation existing between leaders and individual members of most of the ethnic associations. It is notable that to some extent these linkages also appear to be influenced by some of the same variables of social differentiation which structure the organization of community-based activities more generally including age and gender.

The classical ecological model of spatial assimilation has been found to be at least somewhat applicable to the residential trajectories of many immigrant groups. Unlike many of these ethnic populations, most Vietnamese residents of Toronto have lived in Canada for two decades or less. Despite the relatively short duration of time the Vietnamese as a group have spent in Canada, some segments of the population are clearly suburbanizing. Persons of Vietnamese origin who came as part of the initial large-scale "Boat People" migration concentrated almost entirely in neighbourhoods located in central Toronto. The enclaves in east and west end Toronto continued to expand in size until the early 1990s. By the mid-1980s, more outlying communities including the City of York, Downsview, and a couple of Mississauga neighbourhoods were becoming the foci for new clusters of Vietnamese residents. Over the past decade a phenomenal expansion of Vietnamese households has occurred in regions outside the older Toronto central city including the City of York, Downsview, Rexdale, as well as the cities of Mississauga and Brampton. Some of the Vietnamese residential expansion in the suburbs can be attributed to the decisions of many Vietnamese to buy homes in peripheral locales of the metropolitan area where home prices are generally lower compared to more centrally sited neighbourhoods. Thus, to some extent, it seems fair to conclude that the Vietnamese are already following the parameters set forth by the classical ecological model.

In certain crucial respects, however, the trajectories of Vietnamese residence in the Toronto area contradict the logic of the ecological paradigm. The spatial assimilation model of ethnic residential patterns predicts that with time and increasing acculturation, group members will move to higher status suburban neighbourhoods within a metropolitan area. Much of the Vietnamese residential growth in the suburbs has occurred in very localized, low-rent, high-density apartment corridors. In effect, as the initial residential enclaves have stagnated or even declined in population, Vietnamese concentrations have grown in other immigrant reception areas situated in non-central parts of the metropolitan area. From 1991 to 1997, a very significant proportion of the overall Vietnamese residential expansion was occurring in lower-income suburban districts. The existence of such neighbourhoods are unaccounted for in the ecological model.

The ecological approach to ethnic group adaptation implicitly assumes that a clustering of immigrant group members’ residences and institutions is imperative for the continued maintenance of a vital ethnic community life in a particular city. In this study, some support was found for scholarly arguments linking residence and participation in the activities of ethnic associations. In the Downsview neighbourhood, two congregations exhibited membership highly concentrated in neighbourhoods near the church meeting site. Residential proximity seems to facilitate institutional participation as well as informal social interaction among the worshippers of these two churches.

Of potentially greater significance, however, is the finding that most Vietnamese temples and churches included in the study draw their participants from considerably larger physical areas than the immediate parts of the city in which their meeting sites are located. In fact, some institutions possess memberships which seem to be almost completely unrelated to the geography of members’ residences within the larger metropolitan area. The ecological assumption that residential clustering is a necessary condition for the participation of co-ethnics in given community institutions is not supported. Other factors aside from residential location appear to facilitate the involvement of Vietnamese persons in particular institutions. Case studies showed that among most churches and temples, some of these intervening factors included the presence of friends and relatives attending the institution’s activities as well as personal preferences for a certain style of worship and/or a specific agenda of services and programs provided by a particular congregation.

In sum, the evidence provided offers strong support for the "community without neighbourhood" model of ethnic community activity in contrast to the ecological arguments which, rather deterministically, emphasize the role of residential concentration in stimulating social interaction and the development and maintenance of ethnic institutions among immigrant group members. It is possible to conclude that even in the absence of a significant extent of residential clustering, the Vietnamese and other ethnic groups could maintain vital institutions as well as the interpersonal networks of reciprocal exchange which are developed and reinforced through involvement in the activities of ethnic associations.

Findings presented in this study have relevance for the larger debate among scholars concerning the functional significance of ethnic institutions in the lives of participants. Through various means, both Vietnamese mutual assistance organizations and temples and churches were observed to support integration with the Canadian host society. Many of the Vietnamese temples and churches have also attempted on occasion to liaison with the religious institutions of "mainstream" Canadians and have encouraged their members to socialize with those of other ethnic backgrounds possessing the same denominational affiliation.

To a far more significant degree, however, it was observed that Vietnamese mutual assistance organizations as well as temples and churches promote interaction with other Vietnamese and the maintenance of ethnic identity. Brief case studies of several institutions showed that many mutual assistance organizations and temples and churches provide a setting for the development and maintenance of informal networks of reciprocal assistance and social support. Despite the identity maintenance functions of most Vietnamese ethnic associations, it would be misleading to assume that these organizations have merely transplanted traditional Vietnamese culture to the new Canadian setting. Instead, it is apparent that most of these ethnic institutions have attempted to reintroduce core elements of Vietnamese culture and facilitate co-ethnic interaction in new and innovative ways relevant to the lives of their participants in the Toronto area. This is particularly the case with the religious institutions.

The latter portion of the study assessed the relationship between the Vietnamese population and the host society institutions of the mainstream labour market, the mass media, and the criminal justice system in Toronto. The analysis of 1991 census data indicates the Vietnamese population on average occupies only a very marginal position in the mainstream Toronto economy. In comparison to the entire population and other minority groups living in the Toronto area, both Vietnamese men and women were very much overrepresented in factory jobs, particularly in product fabricating, assembly, and repair. Vietnamese were to a significant degree underrepresented in professional jobs including those in finance, insurance, and real estate, business services, education services, government services, and health and social services. The income status of Vietnamese in Toronto in 1991 was shockingly low. Also distressing were the very high rates of unemployment tabulated among individuals of Vietnamese ethnic origin.

To some extent, the marginal socioeconomic status of the Vietnamese may be tied to the demographic profile and background characteristics of the population. A relatively short duration of residence in Canada, a lack of fluency in English, limited exposure to higher education, and poor health are variables which may disproportionately affect the socioeconomic adaptation of the Vietnamese given the fact that a large share of the population arrived in Canada as refugees or in the family-sponsorship class as opposed to as independent immigrants in contrast to many other predominantly immigrant minority groups. The "blocked mobility thesis" of ethnic and racial labour market segmentation also seems somewhat applicable to the situation of Vietnamese-Canadians. According to informants, structural and cultural barriers as well as discrimination in the host society (open or more subtle) work together to restrict the entry of Vietnamese individuals into occupations outside of the usually low-paying and poorly compensated secondary sector.

Responding to this marginal relationship with the mainstream labour market, Vietnamese refugees and immigrants utilize various means to achieve subsistence and realize their goals of socioeconomic advancement. Many Vietnamese find employment within the so-called informal sector where wages are untaxed and paid "under the table". Persons of Vietnamese origin also commonly use friendship and especially kinship networks to pool socioeconomic resources. Vietnamese households are often quite large, consisting of older parents, adult children, as well as young people. The members of the household contribute their various sources of income so that the family as a whole may function as a cohesive economic unit.

The mainstream media has contributed to the context of reception Vietnamese individuals have encountered in the Toronto metropolitan area. Clear temporal themes were apparent in the media’s coverage of issues pertaining to persons of Vietnamese origin. During the "Boat People" crisis of the late 1970s, the Toronto newspapers provided impressive support for the resettlement of large numbers of Vietnamese refugees in Canada. Many news stories which ran during this period raised awareness in Canada of the situation of the refugees and provided a strong stimulus to encourage private sponsorship and general public acceptance of the resettlement effort.

From the time of the mid-1980s, media accounts became dominated by very negative and at times quite sinister portraits of Vietnamese-Canadians. The crime beat reporters of the daily Toronto newspapers took it upon themselves to speculate about the Vietnamese origin of individuals involved in a wide range of criminal incidents. These crime stories served to `racialize’ the Vietnamese in a process similar to that experienced by certain other minority populations which have found themselves situated as problem groups in the larger public consciousness. The Toronto media’s `race-tagging’ prompted a strong reaction from several Vietnamese ethnic organizations. Community activists feared the potential impact of harmful stereotypes for the contemporary interactions of Vietnamese persons with the institutions of the host society as well as the possible long-term influence of such negative imagery upon the life chances of Vietnamese young people coming of age in Canada.

Cultural misunderstandings, a language barrier, and underrepresentation of persons of Vietnamese-origin in law enforcement have contributed to occasional tension between the Vietnamese and the criminal justice system in Toronto. Staffers of several Vietnamese organizations argued that racialized stereotypes of the Vietnamese are common among some individual members of the police force as well as other criminal justice officials including corrections officers and certain judges.

Growing concern about police-community relations in the early 1990s served as the impetus for community activism. Staffers of several organizations became involved in discussions with law enforcement officials intended to facilitate greater cultural sensitivity and awareness among the police, increase Vietnamese representation on the force, and sensitize police officers to their role in manufacturing public stereotypes as they speculate about the ethnic origin of suspected criminals to the news media.

Assimilation Theory

The observed trajectories of Vietnamese residence in Toronto since the early 1980s would seem to provide modest support for the assimilation point of view. The Vietnamese were initially concentrated in a few central city Toronto neighbourhoods. Since the mid-to-late 1980s, the most significant growth in Vietnamese households has occurred in more outlying parts of the metropolitan area including Downsview, Rexdale, Mississauga, and Brampton. Some of this impressive outward expansion of the population has involved Vietnamese families buying homes in relatively affordable suburban districts. After only a relatively brief period of time in Canada, many Vietnamese have chosen to purchase homes in suburban regions located a considerable distance from the central city.

It is crucial to note however that much of the suburban growth of the population has occurred within reception areas primarily composed of low-rent, high-rise apartment structures in which Vietnamese residents have clustered. These new, highly localized concentrations of low-income Vietnamese households in certain suburban neighbourhoods have developed in part as a result of the process of chain migration and are indicative of the continued relevance of co-ethnic social networks to Vietnamese living in these areas.

Cultural Pluralism

The evidence provided in this study does offer considerable support for the cultural pluralism paradigm. Pluralist scholars have argued that ethnic communities provide members with both instrumental and expressive resources. The cultural pluralism model posits that, over time, despite the socioeconomic mobility of individual members, ethnic groups may persist as bases of solidarity and primary interaction. Many examples of the continued relevance of in-group interaction to Vietnamese-Canadians were observed throughout the study. These include the residential clustering noted above and the impressive degree of Vietnamese participation and utilization of ethnic social networks based in temples and churches and certain mutual assistance associations. I observed a significant proportion of the membership of particular churches and temples as well as other ethnic associations were persons who have resided in Canada for fifteen years or longer. A few associations – most notably, a Buddhist group and a professional society – were primarily composed of Vietnamese individuals well-established in Canadian society. Despite a fairly long residence in Canada, participation in ethnic institutions remains important to the participants in these institutions. It should also be pointed out that Buddhist, Catholic, and Protestant congregations possess youth organizations in which young people who have primarily come of age in Canada are strongly involved.

Structural Theories

The research findings indicate that structural-oriented explanations of ethnic group adaptation have merit. Within the Toronto housing market, the Vietnamese population is concentrated in neighbourhoods where the average and median incomes of residents are far below those associated with the metropolitan area as a whole. Vietnamese residential patterns are clearly tied to the very low average incomes Vietnamese men and women earn on average. These meager incomes are a function of the occupational distribution of the population. Vietnamese are disproportionately concentrated in factory and other secondary tier jobs compared to the population as a whole and most other ethnic groups. Census data also indicate enumerated Vietnamese men and women were more likely to be unemployed and/or receiving government transfer payments compared to the entire population in 1991. It is also not difficult to see a connection between the socioeconomic circumstances and "visible minority status" of the population, and the images presented in the mainstream Toronto media of the Vietnamese as a `racialized’ "other." According to informants, the dissemination of these representations to the wider population has likely had negative implications for the interactions of Vietnamese individuals with host society actors including criminal justice officials, the schools, and prospective employers.

The Ethnic Enclave Model

The difficulties many Vietnamese experience in their interactions with host society institutions has clearly served as a stimulus for the activation of co-ethnic social networks as a means of mutual support and also collective action as posited by contemporary theorists who emphasize the situational basis of ethnic identity. This study provided several examples of the expression of agency among Vietnamese as both individuals and as collectivities in efforts to influence their own adaptation in Toronto. Advocacy organizations including the Society of Vietnamese Professionals and the Metro Toronto Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Aid Clinic came into being as a result of the concerns of their founders in regard to the relationships existing between persons of Vietnamese origin with host society institutions including employers, the criminal justice system, and the mass media. This study has also discussed some of the means by which Vietnamese residing in Toronto have achieved subsistence and even socioeconomic mobility despite the institutionalized barriers to their full incorporation in the mainstream Canadian economy. These collective strategies include participation in networks of interpersonal support based in ethnic institutions (particularly temples and churches) as well as households.

It is important to point out, however, that Vietnamese community associations and the constituent interpersonal networks associated with them are not utilized solely for the instrumental functions they provide to their members. There is a strong expressive dimension to participation in many of these institutions. This is due to the opportunity they provide for individual members to socialize and worship in the Vietnamese mother tongue with individuals possessing similar life experiences. It should also be pointed out that little evidence was encountered that might suggest significant proportions of ethnic Vietnamese living in Toronto have used self-employment as a strategy of socioeconomic advancement to the same degree as some other ethnic minority groups. The "ethnic enclave" hypothesis which posits an inward turn to the ethnic economy for the purposes of social mobility may be more applicable to the experiences of the Chinese-Vietnamese. Chinese-Vietnamese involvement in self-entrepreneurship has been well-documented in both Canadian and American settings (Gold, 1992; Gold, 1993; Lam, 1996)

Social Construction Approaches

As noted above, there is considerable evidence that Vietnamese individuals have to some degree been constructed as the "other" in their interactions with host society actors. The mainstream media in Toronto has played a key role in producing and reinforcing this imagery. These `racialized’ representations have not gone unchallenged. Vietnamese individuals have responded to the media portrayals by phoning newspapers and writing letters to the editor. Leaders of community organizations have met with representatives of both the media and police with the goal of achieving systemic change in both reporting and law enforcement practices.

The research findings suggest several avenues for productive future investigation in regard to both the Vietnamese and other immigrant minority populations. The observations made during the course of this study suggest particularly compelling possibilities for future research in the arenas of the housing market, labour market incorporation, ethnic institutions, and the interactions between minority groups and the host society. In the following section, suggestions for further scholarly work in each of these realms will be discussed.

The Housing Market

In this study, it became apparent that settlement counselors employed by ethnic associations and immigrant reception agencies had played a part in directing newcomers to vacancies in certain parts of the metropolitan area. As an example, several informants partially attributed the considerable Vietnamese population in the Parkdale neighbourhood to the presence of a refugee reception centre which helped many new arrivals find housing in the nearby area in the 1980s. The role of such institutional actors as mediators in the initial relationship between new immigrants and refugees and the housing market has been largely neglected in the larger literature on ethnic residential patterns. Real estate agents who target specific ethnic groups in their practice also take on a potentially important mediating role in directing persons of a certain ethnic origin to particular neighbourhoods. There are a growing number of Vietnamese real estate agents servicing a primarily co-ethnic clientele in Toronto. Interviews with co-ethnic real estate agents would likely constitute a valuable resource for more detailed and comparative future research pertaining to emerging patterns of homeownership among the Vietnamese and other immigrant minority groups in the metropolitan area.

The findings also suggest that scholars should pay greater attention to immigrant reception areas which are emerging in suburban neighbourhoods of both Canadian and American cities. It may be suggested that the still influential ecological approach to ethnic residential patterns overemphasizes a central city-suburban dichotomy which has decreasing relevance in many urban settings. In Toronto and many other North American cities, immigrant newcomers are increasingly moving to low-cost rental housing in outlying suburban areas. These suburban immigrant reception districts have been relatively neglected in the larger body of research on ethnic residential patterns. Further study of suburban reception areas is needed along with a reformulation of traditional approaches to ethnic residential behaviour in order to better account for the existence of such neighbourhoods. Likewise, my research suggests another issue requiring further study is the relationship between residence and institutional participation among a range of ethnic groups in different urban settings. Future empirical work is needed to address which model best describes the spatial character of contemporary immigrant ‘communities’ – approaches based upon ecological reasoning which strongly link ethnic institutional life and residential concentration or "community without neighbourhood" explanations which emphasize the decreasing relevance of spatial propinquity for interaction among co-ethnics in a given metropolitan area.

The Labour Market

An analysis of census data revealed an overwhelming concentration of the enumerated Toronto Vietnamese population in manufacturing jobs especially in product fabrication, assembling, and repairing occupations. Unfortunately, the census data do not provide sufficient detail of the specific manufacturing industries in which Vietnamese are most likely to be employed. Further study is needed of the types of occupations in which the Vietnamese and other immigrant minorities are overrepresented compared to the population as a whole in Toronto and other North American cities. In the case of the Vietnamese, it would be compelling to learn some of the reasons such a concentration in manufacturing positions has come about. Several research informants made it clear that given the common language barrier and minority status of the population, these are the highest paying jobs many Vietnamese obtain with the greatest facility. I have heard many anecdotes in relation to certain factories in which large numbers of Vietnamese have found employment in the Toronto area. Potentially useful future work might attempt to discern the role of ethnic social networks in stimulating concentrations of the Vietnamese and other contemporary immigrant groups in particular industries. Importantly, any potential investigation in this area should also pay attention to the way in which these social networks are "gendered" and the somewhat differing representations of men and women in certain occupations as indicated by the census figures. The relationship between residence and job location and the means by which Vietnamese and other fairly recent immigrants get to work (whether they use their own car, share rides with fellow co-workers, or take public transit) would present another avenue for potentially useful future research.

Ethnic Institutions and Adaptation

Among the Vietnamese in Toronto, some of the most vital and frequently utilized ethnic associations are temples and churches. Case studies made it clear that interpersonal networks based in religious institutions are important sources of mutual assistance and social support for many Vietnamese. Scholars of contemporary immigrant groups often neglect to study ethnic congregations and instead most commonly focus on secular ethnic organizations such as social welfare agencies, fraternal groups, and regional associations. Given the central position of religious institutions in the community life of many of the more recently arrived groups, it seems imperative that the relationship between religion, ethnicity, and group adaptation should merit far greater attention among geographers, sociologists, and other social scientists.

Interactions between Immigrant Minorities and

the Institutions of the Host Society

In this study, the sometimes uneasy relationships existing between persons of Vietnamese origin and institutions of the mainstream society in Toronto including the mass media and the criminal justice system were discussed. `Race’ and ethnic conflict as well as the systemic disadvantage and discrimination confronted by minority groups in contemporary Canadian society are issues that are often glossed over by social scientists. This is particularly the case in Toronto where the elite shapers of the public discourse including many government officials and academics prefer to promulgate an image of the city as a kinder, gentler mosaic of multicultural harmony in contrast to an intolerant American "other" to the south (Croucher, 1997). While several important studies have documented the experiences of certain "visible minority" groups with the criminal justice system, the media, and other institutions in contemporary Canada (Stasiulis, 1989; Jackson; 1993; Henry, 1994; Jackson, 1994; Henry; 1995; Creese, 1996), these issues merit significantly more scholarly attention among a greater range of groups in Toronto and other urban centres located in different regions across Canada.

To Appendices

Abstract/Acknowledgements/Table of Contents - [ Chapters - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 ] -  Appendices - References Cited

		Updated February 09, 2004