ABSTRACT
The Aboriginal population in Canadian cities has grown substantially since the 1960s. This growth has occurred in terms of absolute numbers, as a proportion of the total Aboriginal population, and as a proportion of the total urban population. The growth of the urban Aboriginal population has been commonly characterized as resulting from large numbers of people moving from Indian reserves to cities, searching for employment and relief from crushing poverty in their home communities. Two recent newspaper articles provide populist examples of this characterization:
Manitoba’s reserves are pockets of desperate poverty . . . islands of poverty can emerge when a large number of people reject the option of going where the jobs are even though their home community offers little in way of economic opportunity . . . Rural “Aboriginal” chiefs must accept that there are times when the only way to escape poverty on the reserve is to leave.
