Recent Immigrant Settlement in the GVRD (2001 Census) and Planning for a New Service Center
METHODS
Suggested
Site for a new service center: First we opened the 'CitizImmg' table in MS excel and computed the total immigrants of each race. We then picked the top 5* ethnic groups for the analysis, as this captured the major immigrant groups. The top 5 ethnic groups were Chinese, Indian, South Korean, Filipino and Iranian.
*We grouped immigrants from PRC, Taiwan and HKSAR as Chinese, as they all speak Mandarin or Cantonese and have the same written language.
Total recent immigrants by selected places of birth
Rank Place Number
1 Chinese 144,210
2 India 31,220
3 Philippines 28,745
4 South Korea 19,760
5 Iran 16,905
6 US 6,970
Recent Immigrants by place of origin:
Using the variable ‘recent immigrant by places of origin’ we then generated a dot map to represent the spatial distribution of the recent immigrants by their place of birth (Map 1).
From Map 1, we can see that Chinese immigrants (green dots) are spread throughout Vancouver and Richmond, with a cluster around Metrotown in Burnaby. Immigrants from India (yellow dots) are concentrated in Surrey, and Iranians (blue dots) have settled primarily in North Vancouver and West Vancouver.
Percentage of recent immigrants by Dissemination Area:
In considering the location of a new service centre we then considered the percentage of recent immigrants in each Dissemination Area (DA). In DA's having a higher percentage of recent immigrants, it would seem more reasonable to spend public funds on immigrant services and would also be accessible for the greatest number of recent immigrants.
Map 2- CLICK HERE
Based on this reasoning, a proposed
service center in 'Map 2' should be located in the area where recent
immigrant concentration is highest (dark red coloured).
Existing Immigrant Service Centres:
Existing Immigrant Service Centres:
Distribution of recent immigrants and existing Service Centres:
To find out whether the existing service centres meet the immigrants’ proximity requirements to immigrants settlement, we overlaid Map 1 and Map 3 to produce Map 4 of the distibution of recent immigrants and existing Service Centres.
In Map 4 it is apparent that most of the immigrants are already served by existing service centres. It also appears that the service centres are located according to the clusters of settlement. There is however a cluster Iranian immigrants located around North and West Vancouver that do not appear to be served by any nearby service centre.
Distribution of recent Iranian immigrants and major transit routes:
We now direct our attention to locating a new service centre in the area around North and West Vancouver. Map 5 provides a closer view of the area in question with Iranian immigrant populations indicated as our main group of recent immigrants in this area. Transit routes have also been added to facilitate the selection of the site.
We decide to locate the new service centre near the sea bus station in North Vancouver. Residents in West Vancouver can conveniently access service centres downtown, however those in North Vancouver have to detour to West Vancouver or take the Sea Bus when going to an existing service centre. Consequently, we choose the site within North Vancouver based on the percentage of recent immigrants in the DA, bus stops nearby,and ease of finding it by car. The proposed location is illustratedon Map 6. It has a recent immigrant population of 18-30 % (based on Map 2) and therefore fits the ethnic characteristics we discussed above. It is also surrounded by bus stops and located on Marine Drive, a major roadway, making it accessible and easy to find both by bus and by car. A 0.5 km buffer is placed around the proposed site to allow flexibility in choosing the exact premise.
PROCEDURE
Process of
producing the maps:Data: Census Data by Dissemination Areas, 2001
Address of the existing service centers from the Aboriginal, Multicultural and Immigration Department, Government of British Columbia
DMTI data - Transit routes, GVRD road 2004
Pre-GIS
1. Open the table in MS excel. Compute the total immigrant of each race.
2. Pick the top 5 (consider PRC, Taiwan and HKSAR as one race) ethnic groups. (Or top 3/4 if there is a clear break.)
GIS
GIS
3. Open up ArcGIS turn on the layers and tables. Join GVRDda01 with GVRDDA01CitizImmg.
4. Change the symbology to show total recent immigrants normalized by total population, using yellow to red dichromatic colour scheme and natural break (5 classes) as classification.
5. Add field: Chinese and calculate the values of recent immigrants from HKSAR, Taiwan, and PRC
6. Copy and paste the GVRDda01
7. In the duplicated layer, select dot density to show the top 5 races. 1 dot represents 10 household.
8. Geo-coding. Prepare a excel file providing the name, address, web-site and phone number of the service center and save it as dbf IV format.
Produce an address locator in ArcMap. Specific the reference layer (road 2004), change the address attributes accordingly. In this case, change the field ‘direction’ to ‘SUFDIR’.
Some addresses were unmatched, we match these addresses manually. This involves looking into the attribute tables. Usually there is no such street address in the attribute (not included in any of the <From left>, <To Left>, <From Right>, and <To Right>). To adjust the address or the attribute of reference layer, refer to a paper map to avoid mistakes.
9. After all addresses are matched, create a buffer of 1 km.
10. Add bus routes to the map.
11. Choose an area which is currently neglected by the existing service centers and which has high percentage of recent immigrants.
12. Decide the location for new service center. Create a 0.5 km buffer for it.