Urban Sociology throug the Lenses of Immigration and Ethnicity: From Chicago to Montreal via Amsterdam
Immigration and city have long been inseparable, in the reality of migration flows as in that of sociological thought. But today, the changes of the former set new research agendas to the latter. Therefore, we propose to make a synthetic reading of these changes in four steps, starting by recalling the discussion of paradigmatic cities in Urban Studies and the central place occupied by immigration. Then, the new themes that researchers mobilize in urban sociology according to the new urban landscapes of immigration will be discussed. These highly contrasting landscapes depending on whether American, French, Belgian or Dutch cities, partly determine research agendas. After recalling those of our metropolis, and especially of Montreal, we will examine five areas to think the city today. These five areas are not exhaustive but illustrate that recent research on immigration tell us about how to think about the city. Indeed, the fluidity of the territories of immigration invites urban sociology to focus on mutual interactions at the level of everyday life and on places where ethnicity is negociated.