Journal of Aging Research Two groups seem to stand out in both neighbourhoods, although we are cautious given the small number of partici- pants: (1) the Italian homeowners, and (2) the English and French-speaking renters. First, neighbourhood attachment is recognized as being more prevalent for homeowners than it is for renters, the formers’ symbolic as well as material investment being greater due to their likelihood of moving less frequently than renters [45]. Second, compared to the Italians, the French- and English-speaking Canadian interviewees had a widely dispersed social network in the city, and/or had moved several times during their adult lives, thereby not establishing the same sense of social connectedness (social insideness) as the Italians. The Italians’ description of the neighbourhood as a “village” eﬀectively portrays their warm feelings of connectedness with neigh- bours and their surroundings and seems to be related to their stronger sense of autobiographical insideness, as they had built their lives in the neighbourhood. In Lower NDG, some of the English-speaking Canadians were homeowners, yet there was much less a sense of social connectedness and autobiographical insideness beyond their individual homes and their immediate families. We have alluded to the fact that the older residents’ perceived changes do not necessarily reﬂect the reality of the neighbourhood changes, especially in regards to the proportion of the visible minority population (principally in La Petite-Patrie). Yet the ﬁrst, and sometimes the only, type of change noted in both neighbourhoods was in terms of visible signs of an increasing ethnoracial diversity and physical signs such as new condos, commercial revitalisation, and so forth. On the other hand, new younger and better- educated populations went virtually unnoticed. This relative invisibility of the arrival of this new population suggests that social class change is less dramatic than ethnic distinctions. This ﬁnding draws a parallel to Alba’s [50] Mexican study, where changes related to gentriﬁcation were not perceived by interviewees besides home renovations. Negative comments relating to the perceived increase in ethnic minorities were more common than were positive ones. The French Canadi- ans in La Petite-Patrie and the English-speaking participants in Lower NDG felt especially “invaded,” that they no longer belonged or felt “at home” among the new faces on their once familiar landscape. The negative feelings of “strangeness” in a well-known environment provide evidence of indirect displacement and symbolic exclusion [29] resonating with Nord’s [51] “politics of resentment” in which the London shopkeepers who were interviewed blamed multiculturalism and cultural diversity in the neighbourhood for inequalities and feeling powerless. On the other hand, the Italians did not report the same negative experience, which is likely to be related to their strong sense of social insideness to the neighbourhood. Among the reported changes, the greatest eﬀect on older residents was related to the closure of the Golden Age Clubs and churches as well as the revamping of a commercial street (niche market of bridal and evening wear) and a public market (higher market prices). However, an important distinction between the English- and French- speaking populations was that the English-speaking residents 9 of Lower NDG seemed less aﬀected by changes, such as the closure of their Anglican church, because they were used to leaving the neighbourhood to meet their needs. In addition, an unexpected result was the implementation of a new community centre with activities catering to older people in Lower NDG, a deteriorating neighbourhood, whereas in La Petite-Patrie, a neighbourhood undergoing gentriﬁcation, we see the closure of important institutions for older adults. This surprising ﬁnding is at odds with the viewpoint of Bowling and Stratford (2007) [52] who suggest that increasing the aﬄuence of an area may improve the social and physical functioning of older people who are aging in place. This was not the case in La Petite-Patrie, where the closure of French-Canadian Golden Age Clubs led to a form of “house arrest” for some of the participants. Yet, in Lower NDG, the English-speaking Canadians reported fear of crime, which prevented them from going out at night. As noted by Anne-Marie Se´guin et al. [53], when one is conﬁned to the home it becomes a place of isolation and invisibility. Feelings of insecurity and the disappearance of familiar institutions provided evidence of Billette and Lavoie’s [29] dimension of territorial exclusion. Conversely, in both neighbourhoods, the Italians had managed to maintain their social and cultural institutions. For instance, at present, the Italian Parish in La Petite-Patrie has many members who attend very regularly, and a number of activities continue to be organized around the church. Similarly, the Italian Golden Age clubs of this community continue to operate, contrary to the French-Canadian clubs. A key informant even spoke of the older Italians wanting to open a residence catering speciﬁcally to Italian seniors in Little Italy. Similarly, in Lower NDG, the older Italians continued to meet regularly at St- Raymond’s Church and the bocce courts located behind St- Raymond’s Community Centre. For a number of reasons, the residents of Italian descent in both neighbourhoods viewed the neighbourhood changes with more serenity and comfort than the French- and English-speaking Canadian residents. Similar to Pashup- Graham [28] whose Chicago-based study unveiled some of the positive consequences of gentriﬁcation, the Italians viewed the revitalization with enthusiasm; they recognized that the neighbourhood was becoming more attractive and that the value of their homes was increasing. While the Italians were mostly homeowners, giving them some pro- tection against the gentriﬁcation of the neighbourhood, the French Canadians were all renters. It is thus not surprising that the renters we met, be they French or English-speaking, were at the same time less attached to their neighbourhood and possibly more vulnerable to perceived and objective local changes generating experiences of social exclusion. For instance, the French- and English- speaking Canadians were experiencing forms of symbolic exclusion, as was pointed out by two key informants who believed that these populations were no longer seen or heard, rendering them invisible. Similar to Martin [23] who looks at political displacement, the absence of the voices of this population in politics and decision making also suggests a form of sociopolitical exclusion. The visibility and political inﬂuence of the Italians were obvious to some of the other interviewees, which may