This paper identifies the differences of physical and social characteristics between two ethnic towns
in Toronto, Little Italy and Little Portugal, and clarifies factors in continued existence of each town.
Kaplan (1998) classified relationships between ethnic business and spatial concentration into four
patterns. Sugiura (2011) interpreted Kaplan’s model into a developmental model of an ethnic town
composed of four stages: 1) germination stage, 2) agglomerated ethnic town stage, 3) ethnic business
town stage, and 4) vestige stage. This paper employed Sugiura’s model with an assumption in which
the formation of an ethnic town varies by passing time. Two ethnic towns discussed in this paper were
formed in different periods: Little Italy in 1920s and Little Portugal in late 1960s. Therefore, the
developmental stages of each town are considered different.
The findings showed different characteristics of both ethnic towns in terms of population, land use,
landscape, proportions of ethnic employers and employees, and transition of the number of ethnic
businesses started in the towns respectively. Nowadays, Italian population in Little Italy accounts only
for about 10%, whereas Portuguese is the most predominant group in Little Portugal, occupying nearly
30%. Employers in Little Italy, including Italians (29%), are depending on non-ethnic labours, which
occupy 89% of total employees. In addition, the number of businesses run by non-Italians has been
increasing since second half of 1990s, while Italian businesses had been dominant until 1990s.
However, Little Italy attracts external customers such as tourists by the “ethnic” landscape
institutionally generated to fit for the image of the neighbourhood. Little Italy has been standing as an
ethnic business town, due to landscapes utilized as a device expressing ethnicity. On the other hand,
Portuguese population still concentrates in Little Portugal, and Portuguese employers occupy 65% of
all employers there. The Portuguese employers employ Portuguese residents, relying for 57% of
whole labour force in the neighbourhood, to serve Portuguese customers. Portuguese residents in
Little Portugal and the surrounding area are mainly composed of the first generation who immigrated in
1960s and 1970s. They cannot assimilate easily into the host society because of language barrier. This
first generation of Portuguese immigrants has been helping the formation of Little Portugal as an
agglomerated ethnic town.
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