Ethnic Division Of Labor Research Articles

Privileged core-state migrant entrepreneurs in Poland: an ethnic economy in reverse?

PurposeThe study aims to explore migrant entrepreneurship in a hitherto overlooked demographic, namely, migrants who have moved away from core-states and towards an economically less developed area. In particular, the study aims to critically evaluate to what extent mainstream theories and findings regarding migrants' ethnic division of labour are applicable in such an “upside down” migratory context.Design/methodology/approachThe study qualitatively analyses 41 privileged core-state (UK, USA and Germany, among others) migrant entrepreneurs who have migrated to Wroclaw, Poland, and positions these findings against a second subject group of 24 migrant entrepreneurs from periphery-states (namely, Ukraine and Belarus).FindingsThe study finds that, while the situations of the periphery-state subject group largely lend support to the mainstream literature of migrant entrepreneurship, for those from the core-states subject group it is an altogether different story, whereby these migrants were found to be less likely to employ co-ethnic labour and, instead, were more likely to opt for native, Polish labour.Research limitations/implicationsThe study's findings begin to question the universality of migrant entrepreneurship theories which have been formulated within mainstream (semi-)periphery-to-core dominant-subordinate contexts. This, in turn, carries implications for policymakers outside of core-states who may need to carefully consider if such theories are applicable to their specific contexts.Originality/valueThis study not only helps to address a gap in the literature surrounding migrant entrepreneurship within Poland but also a gap within the wider literature in terms of migrant entrepreneurship outside of core-state contexts.

Из истории проектной культуры Среднего Поволжья: санно-тележное производство середины XIX – первой половины XX вв.

The origins of design lie in the traditional forms of design culture of pre-industrial societies, expressed in handicrafts and folk crafts. Sledges and carts production (and the associated manufacture of wheels and rims) on the Middle Volga, as well as throughout Russia in the mid-19 – first half of the 20 centuries, was a common and traditional type of craft activity, handicraft. Due to the multi-ethnicity of the region, we can talk about its small local features — the specifics of production processes, decor, and the ethnic division of labor. The exchange of cultural forms led to the typification of tools and techniques in the sledges and carts production of all ethnic groups of the Middle Volga — Mordovians, Tatars, Chuvashs. The reasons for this alignment are the practical benefits and long cohabitation of peoples in the region, which through cross-borrowing determined the general economic structure and nature of the project culture. Sledges and carts production of the Middle Volga region from the mid-19 – first half of the 20 centuries was realized through traditional design forms (sledges such as dróvni, rózval`ni, koshévny`e; carts such as pólok, ry`dván, dolgúsha, drógi, tarantás). The paper pays particular attention to the analysis of their manufacturing technologies. The study of various aspects of the sledges and carts production of the Middle Volga region will allow enriching theoretical ideas in the field of studying the traditional design culture of the region. Some of the points and conclusions of the study may be useful in designing an urban environment.

Ethnicity and voters’ evaluations of political leadership: “lab-in-the-field” experiments in Russian regions

ABSTRACTThis paper presents an experimental test of ethnic-based bias in citizens’ evaluation of a political leader’s decision-making across three multi-ethnic regions of the Russian Federation (Sakha, Buryatia, and Tatarstan) and one mono-ethnic region (Arkhangel’sk Oblast). With variations in the intensity of ethnic loyalties, degree of titular ethnic group assimilation, and differences in an ethnic division of labor, Russian regions present an interesting site for the investigation of these conjectures. The experiment participants read a vignette describing a decision by a local mayor and assess the decision. We randomly vary the mayor’s ethnicity and policy choice. Our findings suggest that policy substance is the primary influence and dominates ethnicity when citizens evaluate public officials in three of the four regions. In the fourth region, Sakha in Northern Siberia, we provide analyses to explain the greater salience of ethnicity.

Patterned Inequalities and the Inequality Regime of a Swedish Housing Company

In this article, the authors analyze inequalities between different groups of employees at a housing company in a larger Swedish city. The concept of inequality regime is taken as a point of departure. The purposes of the article are three: first, to add to knowledge of how inequality is generated at an organizational level at specific workplaces; second, to contribute to the understanding of how different practices, processes, and meanings of inequality regimes may interact to create and reinforce inequalities between natives and immigrants; and, third, to contribute to the empirical usefulness of the concept of inequality regime by demonstrating how it can be operationalized and combined with other concepts in the analysis. The study shows how the practices, processes, and meanings at the given workplace generated and reproduced different kinds of inequalities: unequal wages, an ethnic division of labor, unequal influence and job security, and unequal opportunities to capitalize on useful skills (i.e., language competence). Important conclusions are that different kinds of inequalities may reinforce each other by creating vicious circles, and subtler forms of inequality may partly explain explicit wage inequalities.

Do IMF programs disrupt ethnic peace? An empirical analysis, 1985–2006

Structural adjustment programs of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are often blamed for disrupting social relations by forcing austerity on vulnerable people and introducing unpopular liberalization policies. Some suggest that such interventions harm ethnic relations in developing countries because they are insensitive to the tenuous social bargains that often preserve ethnic peace. Moreover, during crises, dominant groups may seek to displace the pain of reform on others, the ethnic division of labour may be affected differentially by reform policies, and ethnic entrepreneurs could use moments of crisis to their advantage. We test the propositions by using unique data measuring the level of ethnic tensions in a country. The results show that IMF interventions reduce conditions of ethnic enmity. These results are robust to fixed effects estimation, endogeneity and selection effects. Moreover, IMF interventions lower ethnic tension in countries that are highly fractionalized, but they are more problematic where larger groups face each other and when larger groups are excluded from state power. These results suggest too that IMF interventions may lead to greater empowerment of excluded groups who might agitate for change during periods of economic crisis. On balance, IMF interventions, relative to continued economic woe, pacify ethnic relations in crisis-ridden countries. We find no evidence to suggest that IMF programs increase ethnic tensions, which is good news for poor countries requiring cheap loans and assistance with reforms.

Herrschaft, Arbeitsteilung, Ungleichheit

Concerning contemporary capitalism a „return of class“ is diagnosed. The paper argues that this is not sufficient to analyze and describe the societal development. Further social differentiations and inequalities have to be recognized to be effects as well as prepositions of finance capitalism. This is analyzed and exemplified in the case of care work by discussing different care regimes in the context of economic and social change and especially austerity. The „crisis of care“ has to be seen as a result of different, but amalgamated logics and relations of dominance combined with different models of the welfare state. The examination shows how the gendered and ethnic division of labor is shaping societal change.

The Role of MARA (The Council of Trust for Indigenous Peoples) in Enforcing Affirmative Action in Malaysia

Malaysia is one of a few countries in which a majority and politically dominant ethnic group, the Bumiputera1 were socially excluded and economically in the aftermath of colonial rule. Bumiputera under-representation in tertiary education institutions and upper occupational positions, and in ownership and control over economic activity, were starker in Malaysia than in most nations that implement forms of affirmative action. Post-independence Malaya was characterized by a social structure, aptly described as an ethnic division of labour, in which groups were preponderantly and persistently confined to particular occupations and industries. Through British colonial rule and migration processes, foreign interests came to dominate the ownership of resources and capital, while Malays, Chinese and Indians, lived and worked in separate geographic and economic spheres. Ethnic social stratification was reinforced by disparities in educational and job opportunities. One of the affirmative action been taken by the government is the establishment of MARA (The Council of Trust for Indigenous Peoples) in 1966. Under the tertiary education, MARA (Council of Trust for the Indigenous People) set up junior residential colleges primarily for pupils in rural and unprivileged areas which enjoyed higher standards of teaching and facilities, especially in science classes. Throughout the years, MARA has established many other institutions too in order to increase the social mobility of the Bumiputera. MARA has played the main role as a statutory body in helping Malaysia to perform an affirmative action. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2013.v2n11p193

Culture at work: Polish migrants in the ethnic division of labour on Norwegian construction sites

Following large-scale labour migration from Poland to the Norwegian construction sector since 2004, new ethnic divisions of labour have been established between the usually native core workforces of construction firms, and Polish migrant workers hired through temporary subcontracting and staffing agencies. Survey data suggest that there is very little mobility between these segments of the labour market. The establishment and reproduction of this ethnic division of labour is analysed through qualitative interviews with Norwegian employers and Polish migrant workers. Polish migrants and their particular ‘work culture’ are perceived by Norwegian employers as well-suited for work in the firms’ temporary external workforces but unfit for permanent positions unless they assimilate to a ‘Norwegian work culture’. These stereotyped employment practices are reinforced by the migrants’ own tactical use of the cultural capital available to them when negotiating the conflicting expectations in different job segments.

CONTESTING THE RACIAL DIVISION OF LABOR FROM BELOW

AbstractPopular discourse and academic scholarship both accent divisions between African American and immigrant workers. These debates most often focus on the question of job competition, positioning African Americans and immigrant workers asa prioriadversaries in the labor market. We take a different tack. Drawing upon a case study of hotel workers in Chicago, we identify ways in which workers themselves challenge and bridge these divisions. Specifically, we reveal how union organizing activities, such as diverse committee representation and inclusion of diversity language in contracts, counter notions of intergroup competition in an effort to build common cause that affirms rather than denies differences. We argue that these activities represent political efforts on the part of workers to contest and even reshape the racial and ethnic division of labor, thereby revealing competition as a socially contingent and politically mediated process.

Migration, Modernisation and Ethnic Estrangement: Uyghur migration to Urumqi, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, PRC

AbstractIn the People's Republic of China, minority nationality peoples have the same formal rights as Han Chinese. However, in Xinjiang, the modernisation project is taking precedence over ethnic harmony as recruitment practices are increasingly disadvantaging the Uyghurs, despite earlier affirmative action policies. Ethnographic and survey research among Urumqi's floating population indicates that Uyghurs are excluded from certain sectors, earn lower incomes and reside in poorer accommodation than Han Chinese, from whom they remain spatially and socially segregated. As the state increasingly relies on the invisible hand of the market, so the commodification of labour relations and property is amplifying social rifts between nationalities. Uneven regional development prompts Han people to migrate into Xinjiang and Uyghurs to migrate to the cities within Xinjiang, bringing these two ethnic groups into competition within a labour market. This has resulted in an ethnic division of labour that exacerbates inter- and intra-ethnic tensions.

Urban Communities, State, Spatial Order, and Modernity: Studies of Imperial and Republican Beijing in Perspective

Urban Communities, State, Spatial Order, and Modernity: Studies of Imperial and Republican Beijing in Perspective Yamin Xu (bio) Madeleine Yue Dong. Republican Beijing: The City and Its Histories. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. xxiii, 380 pp. Cloth $50.00/£32.50, ISBN 0-520-23050-7. Susan Naquin. Peking: Temples and City Life, 1400–1900. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. xxxv, 816 pp. Cloth $85.00/£55.00, ISBN 0-520-21991-0. Jianfei Zhu. Chinese Spatial Strategies: Imperial Beijing, 1420–1911. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004. xiv, 281 pp. Hardback $135.00, ISBN 0-415-31883-1. A Historiographic Context During the 1970s, new studies on urban China began to advance rapidly while scholars decisively abandoned Max Weber’s propositions about Chinese cities1 that had dominated the field. The first such systematic challenge to the Weberian approach, it is recalled, was led by G. William Skinner whose path-breaking studies2 were built on his earlier research work on the marketing and social structure in rural China. Skinner refutes several basic Weberian assumptions about Chinese cities. One is that traditional Chinese cities were built neither on nor for trade but mainly served as residences of imperial viceroys.3 By re-presenting the medieval (the eighth through the thirteenth century) economic and urban revolution “discovered” by Denis Twitchett, Shiba Yoshinobu, Mark Elvin, and others4 in a new framework of “regional citification and urban systems” and by further extending the development of this regional pattern well into the Ming-Qing periods, Skinner puts Weberians on a defense position. Moving away from the Weberian Oriental-city typology, Skinner has brought attention to diversified city groups that, depending on their physiographic locations, occupied different positions in two overlapped but not identical hierarchical urban systems and spatial structures—one administrative and the other economical. Of the two, Skinner emphasizes the latter, which was non-state oriented and “reflected the ‘natural’ structure of Chinese society—a world of marketing and trading [End Page 1] systems, informal politics, and nested subcultures dominated by officials-outof- office, nonofficial gentry, and important merchants.”5 Also, Skinner adds, “administrative capitals were but a subset of economic central places.”6 Weber also claimed that since “[t]he urban resident in China normally belonged to his native rural community” and “legally belonged to his family and native village in which the temple of his ancestors stood and to which he conscientiously maintained affiliation,”7 it was hard for the Chinese urban dwellers to develop “oath-bound communities” that would fight to “attain autonomy.”8 While formulating his response, Skinner recognizes a reality that the traditional Chinese elite (gentry) “was by no means predominantly urban” and that in imperial Chinese cities the urban culture was not “comparable to that of the bourgeoisie in late medieval Europe or of the chōnin in Tokugawa Japan.” On the other hand, Skinner argues that there was a growing “merchant influence” in Chinese cities,9 which could be regarded as equivalent to the “bourgeois” culture of the “Occidental city.” There is yet another obstacle to overcome before proving that Weber was wrong about urban communities in Chinese cities: Skinner needs to explain that Chinese merchants were not parochial and particularistic groups bounded by native-place ties. Indeed, Skinner has a different view: he sees native-place ties as a mobility strategy exploited by regional groups to facilitate their moving up to higher-level central places for professional career opportunities. As for monopolies maintained by native-place groups in handcraft industry or trade, Skinner considers them as regionally based specializations, or “an ethnic division of labor.”10 In short, native-place ties are viewed as practical and economical strategies rather than an essential Oriental cultural behavior. To respond to the old generalizations that traditional Chinese cities lacked a complex urban social and spatial structure, Skinner draws attention to “a model of urban ecology” and points to the case of Qing Beijing where two nuclei in the city were formed: “[O]ne the center of merchant activity, the other the center of gentry and official activity.”11 The emergence of a merchant nucleus obviously paralleled a growing “merchant influence.” To confront Weber’s claim that “there...

Constructions of whiteness: latvian women workers in post-war britain

This article examines the ways in which Latvian women recruited by Britain as ‘volunteer’ workers in 1946 were constructed by the state as superior to other female economic migrants entering the United Kingdom at the same time. It draws on the notion of the ‘wages of whiteness’ to show how the British state defined Latvians as superior to Caribbean women but also argues that whiteness itself is a multiple construct as Irish and Latvian women–both white–found themselves differentially positioned in the gender and ethnic division of labor developing in post-war Britain. Based on interviews with 25 now elderly Latvian women, the article adds personal testimonies to Paul's (Paul, K. (1997) Whitewashing Britain: Race and Citizenship in the Postwar Era (Ithaca, New York, Cornell University Press)) arguments about the significance of skin color vis-à-vis citizenship in post-war British immigration policy.

Grounds of Race

Following a cross-disciplinary review of the debates on race in the Caribbean, this work focuses on the plantation as a space of racial formation, reclaiming the centrality of slavery for the understanding of race and racism in the region. The essay looks at continuities and changes in the racial legacy of slavery, analyzing the plantation as a defining space for racial meaning and for the racial experiences of those who lived in it and those who live its legacy in the present. The changes in the plantation as a social regime are considered through the examination of the racial and ethnic division of labour after the end of slavery. The author concludes with some considerations on the contradictions embedded in the plantation as a heritage site for tourism and the popular representation of the past.

The 'Ethnic Division of Labor' on Ottoman Railroads

Cet essai, utilisant les registres de l'emploi des Chemins de Fer ottomans d'Anatolie, suggere des revisions de notre comprehension de la division ethnique du travail dans l'Empire ottoman. Il montre en effet que s'il y avait certaines divisions parmi les travailleurs ottomans d'origines ethniques differentes, les plus importantes lignes de division correspondaient, en fait, a celles de la nationalite. Ainsi, tandis que les Ottomans musulmans et non-musulmans etaient employes dans les memes types de travaux, les travailleurs de nationalite non ottomane etaient predominants pour les meilleures paies et dans les positions de pouvoir.

The great escape? Globalization, immigrant entrepreneurship and the criminal economy

Scholars have long posited that an ethnic division of labour influences the opportunity structures faced by immigrants, relegating them to the margins in the formal, informal and criminal economies. Opportunity structures, however, are embedded in broader economic contexts and, as argued by the globalization literature these contexts appear to be undergoing a striking change. This articles explores the extent to which dynamics of economic globalization have altered the ethnic division of labour in the core sector of the criminal economy – the illicit drug trade. A plausibility probe of patterns of immigrant participation in the illicit drug sector in Japan, Germany and the US reveals that rather than altering the nature of ethnic divisions of labour in the criminal economy, globalization appears to be reinforcing existing patterns of selective marginalization and empowerment.

Remembering through Material Culture: Local Knowledge of Past Communities in a Turkish Black Sea Town

This article looks at the interaction between narratives and material culture in the study of the local history of Tirebolu, a small town on the Turkish Black Sea coast. It derived from a larger project which had a different focus. The original project began in 1994 and continued until 2000. During the first part of the project (1994-96), the focus was primarily on women's knowledge of domestic life at the turn of the century.' The second part was undertaken during 2000, and looked at local knowledge, and the role of 'place' in the multiple ways of belonging to a certain locality. After interviewing a total of 32 people,2 as the manager of the project, I realized that there existed an interesting dialogue between places and people. The way narratives and material culture were interacting eventually became an inevitable methodological focus in the handling of both research projects. At times, it was a narrative that led me to chase a relic, whilst in other cases, a conversation about a neglected relic inspired a story to be told. Women, for instance, talked hours about the details of their houses, the public areas they could access, the beaches where they could swim, or the rocks which hid them. Men talked mostly about their bachelor times, the 'youth places' such as secret meeting corners, old shops, or playgrounds like cemeteries, hills and beaches. These narratives revealed a certain knowledge of the town's material culture and its historical relics. They led the researcher towards a visualization of an earlier life of the town at the turn of the century. Then, the town had a mixed population that included Turks (85 per cent), Greeks (15 per cent) and Armenians (one per cent), with an ethnic division of labour as described by E. Gellner.3 In many narratives, this earlier life of Tirebolu surfaced as fragments of stories about past communities, raising curiosity about the old appearance of the town, and stories of old relics. Remembering through material culture revealed indeed a local knowledge of past communities both Muslim and non-Muslim alike. The

Ethnic Competition in the Retail Trade in Northern U.S. Cities in 1900: A Test of the Saturation Theory of Entrepreneurship

The idea that the success of some ethnic groups limits the opportunities of others was a major theme of the Chicago School ecologists, who argued that ethnic groups naturally engage in zero-sum contests for prized occupations. This idea underlies the saturation theory of entrepreneurship, which holds that, in urban economies, the presence of highly enterprising groups impedes the entry of less-enterprising groups into small businesses. I test this theory, analyzing census data on retail enterprise in the urban North in 1900. I found virtually no evidence that retail enterprise among highly entrepreneurial ethnic groups (e.g., Russians and Italians) depressed retail enterprise among less-entrepreneurial ethnic groups (e.g., Irish and Blacks). I reject the saturation theory and conclude that the results support the theory of the ethnic division of labor, which implies that the activities of highly enterprising groups are compartmentalized into occupational niches and thus do not adversely affect other groups.

A Profile of the Labor Force in Early Nineteenth-Century Istanbul

This article attempts to offer a detailed profile of the labor force in early nineteenth-century Istanbul. The primary source upon which this study is based is the register of an original Ottoman survey, conducted in the Istanbul districts of the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn, where some 2,000 shops along with their work force of 6,000 people as well as 1,500 peddlers (working as, among other things, boatmen, fishermen, and water carriers) were listed in a comprehensive fashion. Through an examination of the register, this article seeks to illuminate the general characteristics of employment and shop sizes, the ethno-religious profile of the labor force, occupational patterns in connection with religious allegiances and migration networks, and the degree to which the military corps were involved in commercial activities. It also questions the supposed existence of an “ethnic division of labor” in labor market and commercial activities, and demonstrates the centrality of regional allegiances in occupational specializations.

Jews, Arabs, Russians and Foreigners in an Israeli City: Ethnic Divisions and the Restructuring Economy of Tel Aviv, 1983-96

This article examines the role of urban economic restructuring in the emerging new ethnic division of labor in Tel Aviv, in the context of large waves of migration to and from the city. The occupational structures of four groups – veteran Jews, Israeli Arab citizens, new immigrants from the former USSR who are Israeli citizens, and non-citizen foreign workers – are analyzed. Study of the evolution of polarized occupation and income levels in the city of Tel Aviv relative to the rest of Israel shows that both aspects of polarization widened in the city of Tel Aviv as the restructuring process advanced. The findings are discussed in view of the theoretical debates regarding polarization, professionalization and the emergence of a new urban ‘underclass’. The data are based on Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) censuses and labor force surveys. Cet article examine le role de la restructuration economique urbaine dans la nouvelle division ethnique du travail a Tel Aviv dans le contexte des grandes vagues de migration vers la cite et loin de la cite. Les structures professionnelles de quatre groupes – les veterans juifs, les citoyens israeliens arabes, les nouveaux immigrants de l'ancienne URSS qui sont des citoyens israeliens, et les travailleurs etrangers qui ne sont pas des citoyens – sont analysees. Une etude de l'evolution de l'occupation et du niveau des revenus polarises dans la ville de Tel Aviv par rapport au reste d'Israel montre que les deux aspects de la polarisation se sont agrandis dans la cite de Tel Aviv durant la progression du processus de restructuration. Les resultats sont discutes par rapport aux debats theoriques sur la polarisation, la professionnalisation et l'emergence d'une nouvelle ‘sous-classe’ urbaine. Les donnees sont basees sur les recensements du Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) et sur des enquAtes sur les travailleurs.

The Industrial Division of Labor among Immigrants and Internal Migrants to the Los Angeles Economy

Between 1985–90, metropolitan Los Angeles received about 400,000 working immigrants and about 575,000 working native in-migrants. We subdivide these native- and foreign-born migrants by national origin and ethnicity to examine the processes that channel recent arrivals into different industrial sectors. Our analysis extends previous research on migrant employment and the ethnic division of labor in two ways. We compare the employment of recent arrivals to residents for several groups across a large, diverse, regional economy. We also consider the role educational qualifications play in the allocation of different migrant groups to jobs at this aggregate analytical scale. The results show that both native- and foreign-born groups channel into particular industrial sectors. The strength of group channeling, however, varies by national origin and ethnic group. Native-born in-migrants are more likely to channel into the industries where their co-ethnic residents work than immigrant newcomers. We also find some groups more likely to take jobs based on their educational qualifications (whites, blacks, Filipinos and Chinese), whereas ethnic group effects dominate the choice of industry of others (Koreans). The analysis investigates the issue of interethnic labor market competition by comparing the employment profiles of newcomers with those of resident ethnic groups. It shows that immigrants experience more interethnic labor market competition from newcomers than do native whites and blacks.