Manoj Dangwal

Ethnic commercial activity is an important component of the diverse economic landscape of Toronto and its suburbs. Indian commercial activity is becoming visible in the western municipalities of the Fringe area. The upward surge in the inflow of Indian immigrants in the last ten years has generated a sizable consumer market for ethnic goods and services, an opportunity structure, to entice an immigrant to become an entrepreneur.

This research paper focuses mainly on the spatial aspect of the enclave economy and the structure of the Indian business activity. Exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) techniques such as spatial autocorrelation and local indicators of spatial autocorrelation (LISA) measures are used for detecting clusters of Indian population and "hot spots" of Indian commercial activity. Global Moran's coefficient (MC) is used for measuring the degree of spatial contiguity.

Positive significant MC for population and business location data indicates a clustered pattern. The degree of clustering of businesses has increased in 2004 compared to 1994. The LISA pattern shows the development of a spatial ethnic enclave economy in the western municipalities of Brampton, Mississauga and Etobicoke. Business clusters within downtown Toronto are not backed by Indian population in the vicinity. Toronto has relatively a larger share of restaurants and clothing stores compared to other municipalities. Business services and personal services are the major growing components of the Indian commercial activity. The other important categories are restaurants, food, auto services, jewellers and furniture stores.

The Indian commercial activity is found to be different from the Chinese commercial activity in terms of spatial distribution, business format, and structure. The only similarity of Indian business activity with the Chinese is the increase in the businesses offering services.