wild goose chase
Active Member
Currently the GTA has one of the largest South Asian or Indian origin populations in North America, and is close to matching if not rivalling the NYC metro area (numbers seem to range into the 600 000s for specifically those who claim Indian-descent). Within the US, the Chicago area has the second-largest but today it is not particularly really a large destination for people from that part of the world, or a major immigration hub in general like it was earlier.
One thing I noticed was that an Indian food grocery store, Patel Brothers, as I made a thread asking about (http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/threads/the-patel-brothers-indian-food-grocery-stores-in-the-gta.25428/) started off in Chicago in the 1974. It's interesting that despite Toronto having such a huge community of South Asians, there's a grocery store chain first founded by Indian Chicagoans that serves the GTA. Now currently there are considerably more Indian Torontonians than Indian Chicagoans but perhaps at some point the reverse was true? I wonder if this means that at one point (perhaps the earlier arrivals of the post 1965 wave, or those in the 70s or 80s), Toronto's South Asian community lagged behind those of their US counterparts, and looked southward for a shared market, in addition to perhaps family ties, before coming into its own with critical mass and then later surpassing other US cities?
Then again, the Indo-Canadian communities (like with East Asians) on the west coast/BC seem to also have been a little bit older than those in Ontario or the GTA though I don't know if many Asian-Canadians in Ontario are tied more to their counterparts on the West coast or those stateside.
One thing I noticed was that an Indian food grocery store, Patel Brothers, as I made a thread asking about (http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/threads/the-patel-brothers-indian-food-grocery-stores-in-the-gta.25428/) started off in Chicago in the 1974. It's interesting that despite Toronto having such a huge community of South Asians, there's a grocery store chain first founded by Indian Chicagoans that serves the GTA. Now currently there are considerably more Indian Torontonians than Indian Chicagoans but perhaps at some point the reverse was true? I wonder if this means that at one point (perhaps the earlier arrivals of the post 1965 wave, or those in the 70s or 80s), Toronto's South Asian community lagged behind those of their US counterparts, and looked southward for a shared market, in addition to perhaps family ties, before coming into its own with critical mass and then later surpassing other US cities?
Then again, the Indo-Canadian communities (like with East Asians) on the west coast/BC seem to also have been a little bit older than those in Ontario or the GTA though I don't know if many Asian-Canadians in Ontario are tied more to their counterparts on the West coast or those stateside.