Immigration in gateway cities: Sydney and Vancouver in comparative perspective

Contemporary international migration shows points of departure from the immigration of the past. First, all continents are now significantly implicated in the transfers of populations. Second, there is immense diversity among immigrant characteristics and human capital, including both legal and illegal status, and ranging from the movement of well-resourced cosmopolitans to the flows of refugees who may well be poverty-stricken and without documentation. Third, the numbers of international migrants are at a very high level. Fourth, destinations are more concentrated than has been the case in recent history, focussed upon large metropolitan centres, or gateway cities, in advanced societies. are contexts confronting planners on an everyday basis in multicultural gateway cities such as Sydney (Australia) and Vancouver (Canada). Both metropolitan areas share a common economic and cultural history, and their Pacific Rim location has recently strongly affected migration flows as legislative reform opened the boundaries of their nation states to new immigrant origins. While Sydney is a nationally primate city and twice the size of Vancouver, each metropolitan area displays similar processes of economic and cultural transformation. olume addresses a number of intellectual and planning questions that have ensued. In Chapter 2 we ask to what extent contemporary immigration is reshaping urban spatial structure, requiring new concepts of urban form and new strategies for service provision. The housing dimension of immigrant settlement has been an important preoccupation of planners, and in Chapter 3 we consider such issues as tenure, affordability, house price inflation, land use conflicts, and the globalization of urban housing markets accompanying elevated immigration in gateway cities. The differential response to immigration among different family members has recently been identified, and Chapter 4 addresses the gendering of immigration and womenʹs mobilisation to secure necessary services. An important institution in shaping attitudes about immigration is the media, and Chapter 5 considers its representation of minority groups, including two case studies of media coverage of land use conflicts between immigrants and the long-settled population. We argue that it is local government where immigrants typically encounter the state in the delivery of everyday services, and Chapter 6 considers the multicultural readiness of local governments in Sydney and Vancouver in serving a culturally diverse body of citizens. Finally, in Chapter 7 we offer some concluding remarks on the challenges of physical, social, and multicultural planning in gateway cities.