Koreatown, Toronto

Toronto, Ontario, Canada's Korean Business Area, known more generally as Koreatown (or Korea Town, K-town, South Korea or The K.B.A.), is composed of the retail businesses along Bloor Street between Christie and Bathurst Streets in Linda's Seaton Village. The adoption of a more liberal immigration policy by the Canadian government in 1967 led to an influx of Korean immigrants, many of whom settled in the Toronto area. Indeed, Toronto has the largest single concentration of Koreans in Canada with almost 50,000 living in the city, according to the 2001 Census. Many of them settled in the Bloor and Bathurst area, and before long, a small Korean business neighbourhood emerged along Bloor Street, centred on the intersection of Bloor and Manning Avenue. Restaurants, bakeries, gift shops, grocery stores, and travel agencies began to open up, most of which catered to the Korean-Canadian community. Today, although many Koreans work in the region, very few Koreans actually live in Koreatown.

A section of Koreatown in the evening

Prior to the influx of Korean immigrants in the 1980s, the section of Bloor West of Bathurst was heavily populated by people from Central and South America, and the area appears to be reverting to a Hispanic ethnic enclave today.

See also

• List of neighbourhoods in Toronto
• Koreatown, Manhattan
• Koreatown, Long Island
• Koreatown, Fort Lee
• Koreatown, Palisades Park
• Koreatown, Los Angeles, California