AWA: Academic Writing at Auckland

Ethnoscapes is a geographical area that is associated with a particular ethnic group and this ethnicity can be seen in the built environment (Li and Skop 2009). This is expanded upon by Friesen (2013) that ethnoscapes are not just the built environment but also includes non-tangible aspects such as language and art that contribute to the development of ethnoscapes. Ethnoscapes are becoming more prevalent in the modern-day world due to the process of globalisation as it’s easier to travel the world due the concept of time-space compression (Massey 1991). With people settling in countries from all around the world it is expected they will bring their culture with them and diversify the country of settlement. In this essay I will discuss how the concepts of how ethnoscapes represent ethnic presence, difference and change in urban areas. The key themes that will discussed within the concepts stated will be ethnic economies, segregation and multicultural cities.

Ethnic difference within an urban area has created the ideology of a multicultural city. Multiculturalism is an ideology where people from different cultures are able to function within society and how different cultures interact with each other (Hoernig & Walton-Roberts 2009). Multiculturalism is embodied in many ways, one of the ways it is embodied is through the economy. The presence of multiple ethnic economies can be seen in Auckland in places such a Dominion Road, which has multiple tangible reflections of an ethnoscape with many Asian restaurants and shops but also reflections of non-tangible with the smell of Asian food being present when walking down the street. This is seen to be a form of ethnic enclave economy as there is a cluster of shops on this street which represents a territorial core, also the shopkeepers, employees and most of the clients are of the same ethnicity (Lo, 2009) This is an example of a multicultural city as it’s not just the Asian community that is engaging and purchasing from these shops, the general population can be seen to shop here which shows how different cultures interact with each other. Multiculturalism can also be seen on Beach Road on this road there is a presence of different ethnoscapes. There is the Asian supermarket but as you walk towards the central business district of Auckland there are more restaurants which reflect different types of ethnicity just on this single road. There were Mexican, Vietnamese and American restaurants nearly next to each other and yet their seemed to be no tension between them and there was seen to be a variety of ethnicities within each restaurant enjoying the cuisine. This shows that different ethnoscapes are experienced by lots of different ethnicities not just the ethnic group associated with that space supporting the idea that ethnoscapes shows ethnic difference and creates multicultural cities.

 Ethnic difference can also be seen in the different type of economies that different ethnicities engage with. Certain cultural characteristics associated with different ethnic groups push certain people into different jobs. For example, there is a high percentage of Chinese, Japanese and Italians that become entrepreneurs as their culture includes norms of sharing resources, saving money and the need to facilitate capital (Lo 2009). The entrepreneurship of these cultures creates the ethnoscapes we see in the modern day with the opening of restaurant and shops. However, ethnoscapes don’t show the structural disadvantages people from different cultural experience. One example of this is that foreign credentials are not recognised by the country certain people want to settle in. In New Zealand the government doesn’t recognise a Chinese doctorate which lead many Chinese people to open up shops instead as they don’t have the credentials needed to pursue their career that they developed in their home country. This shows that ethnoscapes shows the cultural differences by exposing people to different types of cuisine, shops and languages however, ethnoscapes don’t show the structural disadvantages different ethnic groups experienced.

Ethnic presence within an urban area will change what type of economies are present it an urban area. Lo (2009) suggested that there are five different economies that may occur when there is an ethnic presence within an urban area. An example of one of these economies is an ethnic (non-enclave) economy. This type of economy is located either inside or outside of ethnic areas and sells cultural products to people from that ethnicity and to the general population (Lo 2009). An example of this in the real world is the Asian supermarkets on Beach Road within Auckland. The supermarket employees and the majority of its customers belong to an Asian ethnicity, however people from the general population still go there to purchase goods. The range of foods within the supermarkets reflect the Asian roots, also the employees and some of the customers talked to each other in Chinese and many of the signs outside of the shop and labels within the shop have a Chinese translation or where completely in Chinese which represented the non-tangible aspects to this ethnoscape. However, ethnosacpes are usually snapshot in time of the ethnicity that is present in that geographical area at that specific moment in time. It has been seen in communities that when segregate themselves and create a their own ethnoscape, beyond the second generation the individuals would like to live in a more mixed society (Poulsen 2009). This shows that ethnoscapes are dynamic and the geographical spaces they occur in change with time therefore ethnoscapes that represent ethnic presence are bounded by time.

Ethnic change within New Zealand has been rapid. In 1961 Asian and pacific people combined make up just over one percent of the population and in 1996 they make up a quarter of the general population (Khawaja et.al 2007). This suggests that the prevalence of ethnoscapes within New Zealand would have also increased within this time. The ethnic change of an area occurs over time. Usually when a migrant arrives in their initial settlement period they settle in residential areas that are usually segregated by ethnicity (Poulsen 2009). This is seen as a positive as its where cultural differences are maintained which creates a familiar ethnoscape for the newly settled immigrants (Pouslen 2009). However, ethnoscapes change over time when immigrants become more integrated into the general population. As stated above normally after the second-generation residential segregation of ethnicity (if the segregation was self-segregation) usually want to integrate with the larger population which creates diverse ethnoscapes which are harder to define as multiple ethnicities will be interacting within the same geographical space. However, these ethnoscapes caused by residential segregation are seen as a problem when they are maintained over time as it makes the migrants feel like they are forced to maintain a low socio-economic status, and this may cause parallel societies to occur (Pouseln 2009).

In conclusion ethnoscapes provide a good insight into ethnic presence, difference and change. Ethnoscapes show different ethnicities through infrastructure, language and businesses. These ethnoscapes shape the modern-day city by creating different economies and create multicultural urban areas around the world. These all prove many advantages for immigrants and for the people within the settling country. However, ethnoscapes don’t show the political and more complex structural or institutional influences that push certain ethnic groups to create such defined ethnoscapes. Therefore, ethnoscapes should be used as a starting point into research about ethnic presence, difference and change however to fully understand these the policies and structures of the country of settlement need to be analysed to provide a more holistic view to ethnicity.

References

Friesen, W. (2013) ‘Theorising and naming “ethnic presence”’, paper presented at   Association of American Geographers Conference, Los Angeles, April 2013

Hoernig, H. & Walton-Roberts, M. (2009).  ‘Multicultural City’ in R. Kitchin & N. Thrift (eds), International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, Volume:” Urban Geography, Oxford: Elsevier, pp 201-210.Group 3: Ethnic Economies

Khawaja, M., Boddington, B. & Didham, R., (2007) Growing Ethnic Diversity in New Zealand and its Implications for Measuring Differentials in Fertility and Mortality, StatisticS New Zealand.

Li, W. & Skop, E. (2009). ‘Ethnicity’ in R. Kitchin & N. Thrift (eds), International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, Volume: Social and Cultural Geography, Oxford: Elsevier, pp 616-619

Lo, L. (2009). ‘Ethnic Economies’ in R. Kitchin & N. Thrift (eds), International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, Volume: Social and Cultural Geography, Oxford: Elsevier, pp 615-619.

Massey, D., 1991. ‘A global sense of place’. Marxism Today. June: 24-29.

Poulsen, M.F. (2009). ‘Segregation’ in R. Kitchin & N. Thrift (eds), International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, Volume: Population Geography, Oxford: Elsevier, pp 616-619.