One of the many many things that I liked about moving from Prince Edward Island was that I'd have the chance to witness for myself the
ethnic succession theory, "a theory in sociology stating that ethnic and racial groups will be the targets of neighborhood segregation only until they achieve economic parity. This group will then move on and be replaced by a new ethnic group in a similar situation. This pattern will continue, creating a succession of groups moving through the neighborhood over time."
This happens everywhere. A while ago, while visiting Brussels, Noel
observed that an immigrant neighbourhood home to many Turks and Romanians was at one point a Jewish neighbourhood, pre-Holocaust Belgian Jews themselves
constituting an immigrant minority. Another example of this sort of phenomenon is London's
Brick Hill district in the East End, which from the late 17th century has seen successive waves of immigrants--Huguenots, Jews, Bengalis--choose to settle in this area and start to integrate. I'm sure that my readers can think of other examples closer to home.
Toronto's certainly not exempt from this pattern In the early 20th century, Toronto's Kensington Market neighbourhood used to be a
destination for Jewish migrants and a major Jewish community. By the Second World War, the increasing cultural and economic capital available to Toronto's Jewish led to migration north along the
Bathurst Street corridor. Kensington Market, in the meantime,
charged substantially.
The various waves of residents in the neighbourhood, from a range of diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds, have also left their traces on the neighbourhood. The presence of two synagogues, the Kiever (1926) and the Anshei Mink (1930), are reminders of the area’s early Jewish population. The bright and colourful building colours, however, have been attributed to the influence of the Portuguese community that arrived later in the early 1960s.
[. . . ]
During the first decade of the 20th century, Toronto became home to more than 15,000 displaced Jews from South and Central Europe. Between 1905 and 1910, many Jewish families moved out "the Ward" (an overcrowded immigrant reception area between Yonge and University) and settled in Kensington. Families purchased small row houses from the previous working-class British and Irish immigrant residents. Many opened small businesses in the area and the market was established.
Since Jews were restricted from many services and lacked social benefits, the Jewish community established their own societies, hospitals and other services through the synagogues in the area. The Jewish presence in Kensington Market declined in the 1950s and early 1960s when they moved up and out to other areas of the city.
Following the Second World War, between 1945 and the early 1960s, Canada became home to more than 2.7 million immigrants; of which one quarter settled in Toronto. Poles, Ukrainians, Italians and Hungarians moved into the Kensington Market area. The largest and most important ethnic group to establish itself here were the Portuguese.
Immigrants were attracted to the neighbourhood because of the availability of affordable housing for rent or sale, the proximity of the area to public transportation and work opportunities, and the presence of an ‘old world’ market.
In 1962, Canada amended its Immigration Act to allow a more egalitarian process based on economic and educational factors. As a result, many new groups of immigrants from poorer countries moved into Kensington and opened shops: Afro-Caribbeans (mostly Jamaican), Chinese and East Indian. Kensington Market became a true microcosm of Canada’s ethnic mosaic.
Another example of this is the steady expansion of the
Portuguese Canadian community, of relatively recent origins but still
highly visible, a population that has
benefited from ethnic succession. As Nicholas De Maria Harney observed in his 1998
Eh Paesan!, much of the old Italian-Canadian community's territories have been infiltrated by Portuguese migrants. "One Italian-Canadian speaker noted with a grin that, 'thhe Portuguese had pushed the Italians out of Dundas, then College, and now they had made it to Lawrence and Dufferin[;] pretty soon it will be Woodbridge," (77-78).
Woodbridge being a suburban community just outside of Toronto with a large Italian-Canadian community. Little Portugal remains a highly viable ethnic neighbourhood in Toronto, one that seems likely to persist in light of Portuguese-Canadians' generally high level of endogamy and spatial separation.
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