Abstract
This review examines research about current levels and recent changes in ethnic and racial stratification in the United States. Research about ethnic inequality emphasizes that economic stagnation and restructuring are troubling impediments to progress toward equality, and it shows evidence that employers may still use racial and ethnic queues in hiring. A number of issues arise with respect to the incorporation of the new waves of immigrants who have arrived since immigration law reform in 1965. We discuss patterns of adaptation of new immigrants, including available evidence on the ethnic enclave economy and substitution in the labor market of immigrants for native minorities. We summarize new theories and hypotheses about the fate of the children of recent immigrants, and we point to topics in this area needing further research.
Highlights
The open opportunity structure created by the expanding economy eased the incorpora tion of the children and grandchildren of members of the waves of migrants who had flooded to the United States from Europe before and during the early decades of the century
Hirschman & Wong (1984:584) analyzed 1960 and 1970 census data and 1976 Survey of Income and Education (SIE) data for Japanese, Chinese, and Filipinos, as well as for other non-Asian groups. They found a marked decline in the direct negative effect of ethnicity on earnings. They speculate that perhaps Chinese Americans do worse than others because the enclave of Chinatown serves as a funnel that directs Chinese Americans into low paying jobs. (This hypothesis is revisited when we review the more recent debate about the effects of ethnic enclaves on returns to education.) Hirschman & Wong found that there still were costs associated with Asian ethnicity-when ad justed for background variables, all groups except the Japanese had incomes somewhat less than comparable whites
The research literature on ethnic inequality reviewed here shows that progress in narrowing the gap between minorities and whites and among white ethnics was made when the economy was expanding through the mid-1970s
Summary
Immigration and ethnic and racial inequality in the United States.
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