Ethnic Geography
Mystery Country Example
It is a Nation-State
-Primate city of 1.3 million and then drops to 86,000
-30% nomadic
-Did not adopt a free market economy until 1992
-1970s high population growth / NIR is now 1.5%
-95% speak one language
-Buddhism is the main religion
-Landlocked
-Economy based on herding and agriculture and mining
-The informal economy is 1/4th of the economy
-Railway is the main way of getting around
-Communism eliminated illiteracy // heavy influence of
communism in the region
-Improvements in child mortality and lifespan
What is Race?
What is the technical definition or race?
What makes a race a race?
From the Textbook
Race share a biological ancestor or genetic traits
Biological features within one “race” are highly
variable
Biological classification into distinct racial groups is
meaningless
“social construct”
Defines the “other” (we are not that!)
Ethnic Group
How does an ethnic group differ?
Problems encountered when
defining ethnic group
How would you define ethnicity?
 Controversy has surround attempts
to use race as a way of categorizing
people
 Text Def: Ethnicity- Identity with a
group of people that share distinct
physical and mental traits as a
product of common heredity and
cultural traditions.
 Strong feeling of group identity, of
belonging characterizes ethnicity

Key Parts of Ethnicity

Ethnic Homeland

Ancestry

Cultural heritage

Identification
Why is it that ethnicity is a better
than race or other ways of
categorizing people.
Ethnic Homeland


All materials must be local – Ethnic
goes along with folk culture / local
culture
Reflect on your folk culture list.
Problems encountered when
defining ethnic group
 Membership
involuntary
 He
in an ethnic group is
or she must be born into the group
 Often individuals choose to lessen their
ethnicity (popular culture)
 Others are excluded (based off of birth)
 How does the diversity and popular
culture of America confuse ethnicity
What Purpose Does and Ethnic Group
Serve?
 Keepers
of distinctive cultural traditions
 Focal point of various kinds of social
interaction
 Provide group identity, friendships, and
marriage partners
 Also provides a recreational outlet,
business success, and a political power
base
 Can give rise to suspicion, friction,
distrust, clannishness, and even
violence (how and with whom?)
Role of an Ethnic Neighborhood


Compact circular shape is ideal to minimize
contact with outsiders
The circular shape also makes sense with
distance towards a hub or node.

Families, children can interact with each other.

Enough of a customer base to warrant stores

People will centralize around places of worship,
businesses that offer materials from the
homeland, clubs and organizations.
What Role Does an Ethnic
Neighborhood Serve?
Back to Ethnic
Neighborhoods
PICTURE
 Centers quite often also
have buildings that
reflect the homelands
local architecture and
the local materials of
buildings from that
homeland

Also helps to identify the
area / Give a sense of
the homeland.
Ethnic Groups and Waves of
Migration
1st Wave: Germans, Irish, Scandinavians
2nd Wave: Italians, Polish, Ukrainians,
Greeks, Lithuanians, Russians (Jews),
Hungarians, Czechs and Slovaks
3rd Wave: Mexicans, Chinese, Thai,
Koreans, Vietnamese, Indians, Pakistanis,
Puerto Ricans, Brazilians, Filipinos
Exc – Bosnians, Serbians and Croatians
AP Essay
 Define centripetal,
centrifugal
 Give an example of
something that
unites and then
something that
divides
 Explain
What do you need to learn?
Given all of this, why do some ethnic
neighborhoods exist from some groups but not
others?

Size of the population

Assimilation and waves of migration


Fewer cultural barriers equals less
of a need for a neighborhood versus
more barriers
Specific cultural needs (food,
worship)
Explain the Shape or Area of the
Neighborhood



Circular is the most ideal
Rectangular or sprawled out is less ideal but
happens (Koreans)
Oval is perhaps more common than circular
Ethnicity and niche employment
Some groups gravitated to particular jobs
Irish police, Chinese launderers, Italian barbers, or
Greek restaurant owners
Do we see this today? Why?
(1) immigrants’ previous experiences,
(2) the absence of attractive alternative job options,
Low wage, hazardous, risk-taking, entrepreneurial
(3) government policy (visas, etc.), and
(4) employer (co-ethnic) preferences.
Korean grocers, Filipino nurses, Vietnamese nail
salons, South Asian tech engineers/donut shop
owners, Judaism – lawyers, doctors
produces stereotyped images
But because of acculturation, job identification has
lessened over time.
Example of How it Can Happen
• Actress Tippi Hedren visited a Vietnamese
refugee camp in California 40 years ago
• Hedren flew in her personal manicurist to teach a
group of 20 refugees the art of manicures.
• Forty years after the fall of Saigon, 51% of nail
technicians in the United States - and
approximately 80% in California - are of
Vietnamese descent. And many are direct
descendants of that first class of women
Ethnic Neighborhoods
Urban ethnic neighborhoods usually transitory (not
perm.)
Ethnicity remains while undergoing acculturation
ethnic neighborhoods experience a life cycle
one group replaced by a later-arriving one
process called “succession”
Newly arrived immigrants closer to industry, dense housing, ports
and transportation located near Central Business District (CBD) =
“point of entry” neighborhoods
Boston’s West End
Irish (19th century) → Jews replaced the Irish (early 20th
century) → Poles and Italians replaced Jews (late 1930s)
Chicago example = Pilsen
Germans and Irish (mid 1800s) → Czech (late 1800s) →
Mexicans (1960s)
Exclusion


Ethnicity defines membership and does
seal a bond between members but it also
decides to exclude and can be a method
for determining outsiders and bias.
Can be a reason for political instability.
Why is it not within America?

Multi-national

Multi-ethnic
How ethnic minorities can be changed by
their host culture
Acculturation — an ethnic group adopts
enough of the host society’s ways to be
able to function economically and socially
 Assimilation — a complete blending with
the host culture

Involves loss of all distinctive ethnic traits
 American host culture now includes many
descendants of —Germans, Scots, Irish,
French, Swedes, and Welsh
 Intermarriage is perhaps the most effective
assimilatory device - How might this relate to
Europe's immigration problems

Ethnic geography
 The
study of ethnic geography is
the study of spatial and
ecological aspects of ethnicity
 Ethnic groups often practice
unique adaptive strategies
 Normally occupy clearly
defined areas—urban and rural
 What would happen if the
ethnic groups did not occupy
clearly defined areas?
Culture groups typically occupy
compact territories
 Such
regions exist in most countries
 How are the Ethnicities distributed in
America?
 There are concentrations at all levels
 Country
 State
 City
Distribution of minority groups w/in the U.S.
Hispanics (Latinos) = 15% of the U.S. pop.
African Americans = 13%
Asian Americans = 4%
American Indians = 1%
Geographic distribution of minority populations
Minority groups are clustered:
regionally
in urban vs. rural areas
within urban areas (nieghborhoods)
Change in minorities
over time
Hispanics are concentrated in the southwest (cities
and rural) and cities outside of the southwest.
-heavily concentrated in the states of Arizona,
California, and Texas and New Mexico
-most numerous of all of the ethnicities
-around 90% live in cities so not quite as high as
African-Americans but higher than the general
population
Hispanics
Mostly in CA, TX, NY and FL
in SW
 more dispersed between rural and
urban areas
In Northern states
 clustered in cities
 NYC = ¼, but NY = 1/16
2/3rds of Hispanics are Mexican
 NY ↔ Caribbean (PR/Dominican)
 FL ↔ Cuban
African Americans- are more concentrated in the
southeast and in cities in outside of the southeast
-Highest concentrations in Alabama, Georgia,
Mississippi, and South Carolina
-When in the north or other areas, very heavily
concentrated in cities. For example, they are 85%
of the population of Detroit but only 7% of
Michigan.
-In general, upwards of 90% of their population is in
cities compared to 75% for Americans in general
-Give an idea of the importance of the Great
Migration (solely to cities up north)
Great Migration
Rural?
Are there some regions in which you
would more likely find AfricanAmericans and Hispanics living in
rural areas?
Which of the two minorities is more
likely to be in an urban area when
living outside of its main region?
Asians are concentrated more to
the west coast.
-Represent 40% of the population of Hawaii
-12% of California
-Chinese account for 1/4th of all AsianAmericans, Filipinos 1/5th, Indians 1/5th,
Koreans 1/10th, Vietnamese 1/10th
-Overtaking Hispanics as the #1 immigrant
group but not the #1 ethnic minority
Native Americans
Why do ethnic neighborhoods become
nodal and how is that helpful for
maintaining a sense of identity?



Compact shapes usually
have a center (nodal)
that contains shops,
businesses, restaurants
and/or places of worship
Compact allows for least
amount of interaction
How would an ethnic
island in a rural area be
more or less likely to
survive (viable)
Linsborg

Earlier in history went to a rural area

That rural area is not getting new immigrants




Isolated – they actually spoke a rare dialect of
Swedish and maintained it longer than it existed
in Sweden
A small town would be a circular in shape for a
variety of reasons with a frontier for a border
Could be a cultural draw but is too far from
major populations
It is also not keeping the younger generation
Ethnic culture regions in rural North
America
Ethnic islands develop because “a minority
group will tend to utilize space in such a way as
to minimize the interaction distance between
group members”
 The desire is to facilitate contacts within the
community and minimize exposure to the
outside world
 The ideal shape of an ethnic island is circular or
hexagonal
 People are drawn to rural places where others
of the same ethnic background are found
(Earlier in history - Amish)

Ethnic culture regions in rural
North America
Survive from one generation to the
next because most land is inherited
 Sale of land is typically confined within
the ethnic group, helping to preserve
its identity
 Social stigma is often attached to sale
of land to outsiders
 Small size makes populations more
susceptible to acculturation and
assimilation
 How true is this today?

Internal Migration Patterns
Exceptional Events




Breakup of Yugoslavia
Pogroms of Jewish people in
Eastern Europe
Boat People at the end of the
Vietnam War
Refugees from Cuba
Question 1: Migration



Migration Patterns – Ravenstein, major historical events,
substrates
Migration Transition
General Push and Pull Factors – Linked to events of your country
homeland

Distance Decay and Space-Time Compression

Waves of Migration, Chain Migration and Migration Laws


DO SOME RESEARCH on your group and events in the home
country and use specifics in terms and events / also do specific
research on migration patterns and laws and birth rates in the US /
also note migration patterns internal to the US
Think about specific events within your group and use those events
and also what are the specific conditions within your home country.
Question 2: Describe the demographics of your ethnic group
as compared to the average for America and explain why
the various characteristics of their demographics exist.
-you can use gapminder.org
-you can also use logic based off of what you have
learned in class to extrapolate
-use the wiki articles on the demographic transition,
population pyramids, and migration and social
consequences
Example for #2
White non-Hispanic Population
Example Pictures
Question 3
What are the short term and long
term futures for your ethnic
neighborhood based off of
demographic and economic trends
in the ethnic homeland.
Question 4
Take pictures (with you in some of them) and
describe one place in your neighborhood where
the term authentic applies.




Describe what makes this place authentic
Definitely talk about the importance of the
ethnic homeland and traditions.
What are the visible symbols of culture?
Is there anything in the place that seems to
show that cultural items can have both folk and
pop culture?
Question 5
In what ways does your neighborhood
reflect signs of acculturation as it
attempts to deal with outsiders who
come into the area?
or
In what ways does your neighborhood
reflect signs of assimilation as it deals
with existence of an ethnic group in a
area outside of its homeland?
Question 6
What do ethnic neighborhoods do to
promote a sense of identity and a
sense of place?
-Why is this important to ethnic
cultures?
What Else Can You Say
Ethnic formal culture regions
 What
 Cover
is the Ethnic Homeland
areas that often over-lap state
and provincial borders
 Populations usually exhibit a strong
sense of attachment to the region
 Most homelands belong to the
indigenous ethnic groups
 Area the ethnic group feels is native to
it (came from there)
 Distinct
geographical types of ethnic
regions exist

Ethnic groups who reside in ancient home
territories
 Lands where their ancestors lived back into
prehistoric times
 Became ethnic when their territory was
annexed into a larger independent state
 Examples — Basques of Spain, Navajo
Indians of American Southwest
 Place and region provide a basic element in
their ethnic identity
Ethnic Homelands
Possess special, venerated places that serve to
symbolize and celebrate the region
 Combines the attributes of both formal and
functional culture regions
 Geographical segregation tends to strengthen
ethnicity
 Long occupation in a certain area helps people
develop modes of life, behavior, tastes, and
relationships regarded as the correct ones (ones
that go along with that area and the culture of
that area)
 Q:What is a food taboo and how does this relate

Culture groups typically occupy
compact territories
geographical types of ethnic
regions exist
 Results from migration when people
move great distances
Emotional attachment tends to be
weaker toward new homeland
Only after many generations pass
do descendants of immigrants
develop strong bonds to region
and place
 Distinct
 Ethnic
substrate
 Occurs when a people in a
homeland are assimilated
into the host culture and a
geographical residue remains
 The resultant culture region
retains some distinctiveness
 Ethnic
substrate
 Geographers
often find traces of an
ancient, vanished ethnicity in a region
Italian province of Tuscany owes
both its name and some uniqueness
to the Etruscan people who ceased
as an ethnic group 2,000 years ago
Massive German presence in
American Heartland helped shape
cultural character of the Midwest,
which can be said to have a German
ethnic substrate
 Ethnic
substrate
 Geographers
often find traces of an
ancient, vanished ethnicity in a region
Italian province of Tuscany owes
both its name and some uniqueness
to the Etruscan people who ceased
as an ethnic group 2,000 years ago
Massive German presence in
American Heartland helped shape
cultural character of the Midwest,
which can be said to have a German
ethnic substrate
Mertz Apothecary was German but is now
owned by another ethnic group. Why do
they keep the name?
Urban ethnic neighborhoods
and ghettos
 Formal
ethnic culture regions occur
in cities throughout the world
 Minority people tend to create
ethnic residential quarters
 Ethnic neighborhood — a voluntary
community where people of like
origin reside by choice showing a
desire to maintain group
cohesiveness
Urban ethnic neighborhoods and
ghettos
 Benefits
of the ethnic neighborhood
 Common use of language
 Nearby kin
 Stores and services specially
tailored to a certain group’s tastes
 Presence of factories relying on
ethnically based division of labor
 Institutions important to the group
— churches and lodges
Devon and Western (Asian Indians)

An Orthodox Jewish
neighborhood, an Indian
neighborhood, a Pakistani
neighborhood, and a
Bangladeshi neighborhood.
Portions of Devon in this
area have been renamed in
honor of Golda Meir,
Mahatma Gandhi,
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Devon and Western
 Represents
the effects of chain
migration. Groups move and family,
friends and relatives move to the
same neighborhoods.
 Represents relocation diffusion.
People move to a new area and take
their culture and language with them
but do not convert new people to
their culture.
 Represents how differing cultures
can attract people (differing foods,
clothing styles, customs).
Devon and Western
 Devon's
Desi corridor is one of the
best-known communities of its kind in
North America. South Asian shops,
restaurants and grocery stores abound
along this strip, and it has become a
popular tourist destination.
 The Indian community has had a huge
growth rate since the 1980s. Many of
the Indians coming to America chose
to come to Chicago and to this area of
Chicago
 Indians
come to America, and in
particular to the Midwest because
America offered jobs. Many Indians that
came to America were somewhat well off.
Why come to America? What would be
some push factors?
 Is this brain drain?
 Because India was once under British
control, many Indians speak English,
went to western-style schools and are
used to western-style professionalism in
the workplace. What is this?
 The
prestige of getting an education
abroad helped to attract many Indians to
America.
 The corruption of the public government
in India pushed people out (who wanted
to start businesses)
 India's economy was not growing as fast
as it is now back in the 1970s and 80s.
 There was actually a high unemployment
rate for doctors and engineers in India
during those years
 Why
do we not
have as many
Irish immigrants
as we used to?
What will happen
to those ethnic
neighborhoods?
Devon and Western

Many people of India also felt as if the U.S.
was no longer so far away. Why?
Devon and Western
The neighborhood could still benefit from the
presence of a market and also from clearly
religious structures. Because the mosques,
temples and gurdwaras are all storefront, they
do not showcase South Asian architecture.
 Why is this?

Devon and Western
The restaurants are not generically
"Indian" restaurants but are more
specifically defined: Punjabi, South
Indian, Telugu, Pakistani, vegetarian,
sweets
 Devon Avenue shopping: cheap rolls
of sari silk in differing colors, Indian
spices, 10 lb bags of Bhasmati rice
and many delicacies of India.

Devon and Western

How can the landscape show a
neighborhood's ethnicity?
Devon and Western
Within India, there are 14 regional
languages (languages not dialects)
 Most of these languages are well
represented here in Chicago
 And each language group has at
least one organizational center.

Devon and Western
This ethnic neighborhoods reflects the ideals
of a folk culture.
 It is also an example of relocation diffusion.
 The combination of these has helped to
create a unique neighborhood. How?
 Many of the people of this neighborhood
came over through the preference system of
our immigration system. As a result, strong
family ties can be seen here. How does this
relate to folk culture and the growth rates of
these communities?

Assimilation
Recent Asian Indians tend to live in the area of
Devon and Western.
 Second or third generation Indians tend to live
out in the suburbs. How would suburban life
be a sign of possible assimilation?
 Between 1980 and 1990, Chicago experienced
a 46 percent increase of Asian Indians but the
suburbs experienced a 106 percent increase.
 It would be good to know the rate of
intermarriage between Asian Indians and other
ethnic groups. Why?

Urban ethnic neighborhoods and
ghettos

The ghetto — traditionally been used to
describe an area within the city where a
certain ethnic group is forced to live



An involuntary community and as much a
functional culture region as a formal one
Discrimination decides whether a ethnic group
lives in a ghetto or voluntarily forms its own
neighborhood
American society discriminates more against
blacks
Jewish Ghetto: Salzburg, Austria


The name of this
street is
Judengasse – Jew
Street.
Here, as in many
European cities,
Jews were forced
to live in a specific
walled and gated
area.
Jewish Ghetto: Salzburg, Austria



Judengasse had 3000
residents by 1610.
Virtually all of
Salzburg’s Jewish
population succumbed
to the Nazi Holocaust.
The term ghetto
derives from the
Jewish quarter by the
Ghetto Novo or New
Foundry in Venice.
Urban ethnic neighborhoods and
ghettos

Study of Cleveland, Ohio, by John Kain
Blacks are confined to a ghetto by
discriminatory housing practices
 Blacks more highly segregated
residentially than white ethnic groups
 Italians, Poles, Jews, Appalachian folk,
and other white ethnic groups occupy
neighborhoods rather than ghettos
 These other white ethnic groups disperse
to suburbs more readily than AfricanAmericans

Urban ethnic neighborhoods and
ghettos

In ancient times, conquerors often forced
vanquished native people to live in
ghettos




Religious minorities usually received similar
treatment
Sometimes walls were built around ghettos
Islamic cities had Christian districts
Medieval European cities had Jewish ghettos
Urban ethnic neighborhoods and
ghettos

North American cities are more ethnically
diverse than any other urban centers in
the world



Ethnic neighborhoods became typical after
about 1840
Immigrant groups clustered together instead of
dispersing
Ethnic groups generally came from different
parts of Europe than those who moved to rural
areas
Urban ethnic neighborhoods and
ghettos

North American cities are more ethnically
diverse than any other urban centers in
the world


Catholic Irish, Italians, Poles, and East
European Jews became the main urban ethnic
groups
Other non-European groups later came to
urban areas — French-Canadians, southern
blacks, Puerto Ricans, Appalachian whites,
Amerindians
Other ethnic migrants


As immigration laws changed, the ethnic
variety in North American cities grew even
greater
Asia, rather than Europe, is now the
principal source continent for immigrants
in the United States and Canada



Chinese, Koreans, and Vietnamese comprise
the most numerous immigrant groups
Asia supplied 37 percent of all legal immigrant
to United states in mid-1990s
Japanese ancestry forms the largest nationalorigin group in Hawaii
Chinatown: Victoria,
British Columbia, Canada


A key link in a pattern
of chain migration,
Victoria’s Chinatown is
Canada’s oldest, the
earliest gold-seekers
coming by boat via
San Francisco in 1858.
Between 1861 and
1884, nearly 16000
Chinese railroad
workers funneled
through Victoria to the
mainland.
Chinatown: Victoria,
British Columbia, Canada



Discrimation
concentrated the
community and by
1910, Chinatown was
the nation’s largest,
comprising six city
blocks and 3000
Chinese.
Second to Vancouver
until 1950, it now
ranks eighth.
Decline followed the
1923-47 prohibition of
Chinese immigration.
Chinatown: Victoria,
British Columbia, Canada

However, in the
1980s, it became the
first to undergo a
comprehensive
rehabilitation program
and to have a Chinese
arch. The Tong Ji Men
– Gate of Harmonious
Interest, replete with
Animist, Buddhist and
Taoist motifs,
symbolizes Canadian
multiculturalism.
Other ethnic migrants
Many West Coast cities have
acquired sizable Asiatic populations
 Vancouver



Eleven percent Asian in 1981
Has absorbed more immigrants,
particularly from Hong Kong
Other ethnic migrants


Latin America, including Caribbean
countries, has surpassed Europe as a
source of
immigrants to North America



East Coast cities have large numbers from the
West Indies
Miami has become a West Indies/Caribbean
city As early as the 1970s, New York City was
receiving large numbers of immigrants from
the Dominican Republic and Jamaica
Image of Canada and the United States as
predominantly “European” may change
Other ethnic migrants

We need to be reminded not all
emigrant ethnic groups live in North
America

About 28 million ethnic Chinese reside
outside China and Taiwan
Most live in Southeast Asian countries
 Indonesia has over 7 million
 Thailand has nearly 6 million
 Malaysia has more than 5 million

Other ethnic migrants

We need to be reminded not all
emigrant ethnic groups live in North
America


Auckland, New Zealand, has the largest
Polynesian population of any city in the
world
Germany, The United Kingdom, Italy,
and Spain are home to millions of
Africans, Turks, and Asians
Ethnic Neighborhood:
Sao Paulo, Brazil


This torii marks
entry to Liberdade,
a Japanese
community.
Japanese were
initially recruited
to work on coffee
fazendas and by
1924, 34,000 had
been subsidized by
the Sao Paulo
state government.
Ethnic Neighborhood:
Sao Paulo, Brazil


After 1920, emigration
was subsidized by
Japan and arrivals
peaked in 1933 with
25,000.
Highly successful
farmers, especially in
market gardening,
many eventually
moved into cities to
form distinctly
Japanese
communities.
Other ethnic migrants

Urban ethnic neighborhoods tend to be
transitory




Ethnic groups remain while undergoing
acculturation
Central-city ethnic neighborhoods experience a
life cycle
Often one group is replace by a later-arriving
one
Example of Boston’s West End
 Mainly an Irish area in the nineteenth century
 At the beginning of the twentieth century Jews
replaced the Irish
 Poles and Italians replaced Jews in the late
1930s
Other ethnic migrants

Urban ethnic neighborhoods tend to be
transitory


In Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood Central
Americans replaced Cubans
Chicago’s Adams area provides an almost
complete history of American migratory pattern
 First came the Germans and Irish
 Next Greeks, Poles, French Canadians,
Czechs, and Russian Jews
 Soon the Italians pressed those listed above
 The Italians were challenged by Chicanos and
a small group of Puerto Ricans
Other ethnic migrants

Urban ethnic neighborhoods tend to
be transitory

Older groups often established new
ethnic neighborhoods in suburban
areas
Ethnic mix and national character
Any country is the sum of its
cultural parts
 Each country has its own unique
mixes of national origin and ethnic
groups that help shape national
character
 Russia has less diversity and a
largely different array of minorities
than the United States

Ethnic mix and national character

Canada is also strikingly different
from the United States
Far higher proportions of English, French,
Scots, and Ukrainians
 Far fewer Germans, Africans, and
Hispanics

Ethnic mix and national character

Most persons in the United States
claiming German origin have in fact
been acculturated and assimilated



They have become part of the host
culture
Massive absorption into the mainstream
culture
Major factor in shaping a national
character distinct from that of Canada