space and culture has collected links to a newer phenomenon called “ethnourbia”, a term coined in the 1990s by geographer Wei Li:
“Suburbs are bland, right? They’re boring, monotonous, devoid of life and culture: homogeneous. Nope. Suburbia is becoming increasingly diverse. More and more middle-class immigrants are skipping traditional ethnic enclaves and heading straight for the boonies, where strip malls are now filled with ethnic businesses, bubble-tea parlours dot the landscape and schools fill up with kids from any number of different backgrounds. Forget suburbia; this is ethnoburbia.”
“Unlike traditional ethnic neighbourhoods, ethnoburbs are affluent and diverse, home to a wide variety of ethnic groups and income levels. Instead of diluting the ethnic presence, the rise of the ethnoburb has actually made ethnic minorities more visible.”
(via purse lip square jaw by Anne Galloway, another blogging anthropologist!)