Immigration has played a significant role in shaping the growth and development of urban cities within America. Kaplan, Wheeler & Holloway (2004) expand on this idea in Chapter 11 of their work, Urban Geography. The authors hypothesize that immigration is largely responsible for the reconfiguration, shaping and expansion of many major metropolitan cities in the United States, Canada and other outlying regions. The authors support this fact using statistics and geographical maps of the U.S. and major cities in Canada. Had the immigrants not populated many coastal cities in the United States and elsewhere, the country may not have the flavor of diversity it has today especially among urban dwellers.
             The authors introduce the concept of urban geography, and note how the development and evolution of the American Urban system came about largely because of the influx of immigrants into major Metropolitan cities. The authors demonstrate the distribution of immigrants in various metropolitan areas focusing primarily on the United States but also offering detailed statistics from Canada, where urban immigrants also helped shape, restructure and distinguish many urban cities. For example, in Canada, from 1991-1996, Toronto was the city with the largest number of immigrants, followed by Vancouver with just over 600,000 immigrants and Montreal with roughly 600,000 immigrants. Toronto however, realized an influx of almost 2 million people during this brief, six-year time. During this time-period, the immigrants flooding these cities largely influenced the way cities and urban landscapes were changed and segregated. Many smaller urban areas began to sprawl, in Canada and especially within the United States. In the United States, using maps and other diagrams, Kaplan, Wheeler and Holloway (2004) demonstrate just how insidious the influence of immigrants were on cities in the United States. Throughout history the authors note it is evident that t...