Immigration in gateway cities: Sydney and Vancouver in comparative perspective

Contemporary international migration shows points of departure from the imm igration of the past. First, all continents are now significantly implicate d in the transfers of populations. Second, then is immense diversity among immigrant characteristics and human capital, including both legal and illeg al status, and ranging from the movement of well-resourced cosmopolitans to the flows of refugees who may well be poverty-stricken and without documen tation. Third, the numbers of international migrants are at a very high lev el. Fourth, destinations are more concentrated than has been the case in re cent history, focussed upon large metropolitan centres, or gateway cities, in advanced societies. These are contexts confronting planners on an everyday basis in multicultur al gateway cities such as Sydney (Australia) and Vancouver (Canada). Both m etropolitan areas share a common economic and cultural history, and their P acific Rim location has recently strongly affected migration Rows as legisl ative reform opened the boundaries of their nation states to new immigrant origins. While Sydney is a nationally primate city and twice the size of Va ncouver, each metropolitan area displays similar processes of economic and cultural transformation. This volume 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 an d 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: accompa nying elevated immigration in gateway cities. The differential response to immigration among different family members has recently been identified, an d Chapter 3 addresses the gendering of immigration and women's mobilisation to secure necessary services. An important institution in shaping attitude s about immigration is the media, and Chapter 5 considers its representatio n 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 multicult ural readiness of local governments in Sydney and Vancouver in serving a cu lturally diverse body of citizens. Finally, in Chapter 7 we offer some conc luding remarks on the challenges of physical, social, and multicultural pla nning in gateway cities. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved .