Abstract

“Where Strangers become Neighbours: the story of the Collingwood Neighbourhood House and the integration of immigrants in Vancouver”, a film by Giovanni Attili and Leonie Sandercock, is the story of a local institution which was born to facilitate the integration of immigrants in a neighbourhood of Vancouver.

Vancouver, a predominantly Anglo-European city until the 1980s, has been transformed since then by the arrival of East and South East Asians, who account for 65% of newcomers. In the City of Vancouver 51% of residents are from non-English speaking backgrounds – a higher proportion than any other city in the world, except for Toronto and Miami. In simple human terms, this means profound changes at the level of streets and neighborhoods, schools and shops, recreations and religions. What happens when increasing numbers of newcomers move into a neighborhood, bringing with them different histories and cultures, different religions and social practices, and often urgent needs for housing, language training, schooling, and jobs? How do newcomers, as well as members of the ‘host society’, develop an everyday capacity to live alongside and work with those perceived as, in various ways, different, strange…? How do strangers become neighbors? Our story explores this question by looking at one neighborhood in the City of Vancouver.

Collingwood, on the eastern border of the municipality, is home to 45,000 people, only 28% of whom have English as their first language. In 1986, people of English background made up 51% of this working class neighborhood, and people of Chinese background, 21%. Today, 50% of residents are of Chinese origin, 9% are Filipino, another 8% are of South Asian origin.

The documentary is the result of a research whose aim was to investigate the strategies and the goals of the Collingwood Neighbourhood House in building an ethnically diverse community in a place that, just 20 years ago was locking its doors, afraid of change, and telling immigrants to go back where they came from. Through a series of interviews (especially with immigrant women) we gave space to: the pain of separation from immigrant’s countries, the sense of loss which is created in a new territorial context, the discovery of the CNH and of its services and program, the new sense of community which was built by the CNH through a variety of strategies of Community Building.
                                                                                                                                       

Bio

Giovanni Attili obtained his master’s degree in environmental engineering (summa cum laude) and his PhD from the University of Rome, La Sapienza, in 2003. He has been a researcher in the same Department as well as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Community&Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia.

Currently he works as a researcher in the Faculty of Engineering (La Sapienza, Rome) where he teaches “Analysis of Urban and Regional Systems”. He is recipient of the “G.Ferraro” award for the best Urban Planning PhD thesis in Italy in 2005 as well as the award from Italy’s National Institute of Urban Planning (INU), given for his research paper: “The Pigneto: Gentrification processes and new residential dynamics. His research interests are connected with the representation of the city: a concept which requires an interdisciplinary approach to the city itself (intersecting urban planning, visual anthropology and cinema). His attention is focused on the use of “images” and multimedia as catalyst of social interaction in urban planning processes.

Other research interests include immigration, citizenship right, coexistence of different cultures and ethnic groups; practices of resistance, forms of social interaction and uses of public spaces; participatory planning, democracy, and information and communication technologies; stories and storytelling in planning theory and practice.

Giovanni has made three documentaries: “Il Pigneto”, chosen for screening at Mediterranean Film Festival (2004); “Where strangers become neighbours” (with L. Sandercock), which received an Honorable Mention at the Berkeley Video and Film Festival (Oct 2006) and a Special Mention at the International Federation of Housing and Planning film competition (Geneva Sept 2006); “Finding Our Way” (with L. Sandercock) which is now distributed by Moving Images.

He is co-author with Leonie Sandercock of the books: “Where strangers become neighbours: the integration of immigrants in Vancouver, Canada” (2009), “Multimedia Explorations In Urban Policy And Planning: Beyond The Flatlands” (2010).