Ethnic Economy Research Articles

Kritik der „ethnischen Ökonomie“

The idea of a specific „ethnic economy“ is based on the misperception, that e.g. immigrants organize their lives according to a pre-capitalist („traditional“) mode of production, which is thought to be characterized by a mixture of personal relationships (e.g. kinship) and economic practice. Such perceptions of the other have been criticized as „culturalism“ or „ethnicism“. The idea of an „ethnic economy“ is interpreted as a contribution to ethnicism and, considering the present circumstances of hegemonic discourse, to racism too. This effect could be avoided if the modification of marxist theory by Pierre Bourdieu is recognized.

Training Functions of Ethnic Economies: Mexican Entrepreneurs in Chicago

This article evaluates the frequent claim that ethnic economies operate as a training sector for future entrepreneurs. Results from a representative community survey of Mexican business owners in Chicago show that previous employment in a coethnic firm increases the likelihood of acquiring skills relevant for running a business. Mexican business owners who previously worked in a coethnic firm were exposed to training opportunities that differ from the experiences of their ethnic counterparts who did not. However, Mexican immigrants' chances of entering the world of business through employment in a coethnic firm are low, as less than half ever worked for a coethnic boss before opening their current business. Thus the proliferation of Mexican-owned and Mexican-operated businesses may remain relatively low until the small base of Mexican businesses expands.

Unternehmertum und Ethnizität – ein seltsames Paar

Ethnic economy and ethnic entrepreneurship are terms widely used in the anglo-american discussion in relation with questions of migration and integration of minorities. The results of this research are confronted with those coming out of the deconstructivist and post-colonial debate on ethnicity. Historical and present experiences show indeed that ethnic communities cannot be seen as invariable and homogeneous. Specific cultures, may they be grounded on religion or on nationality, display internal breaks and blurred outlines. Nevertheless, for certain periods and in certain circumstances, they may form the basis for ethnic resources, e.g. networks which can be used economically. A central finding is that such resources do not only exist for minorities economies but inside majorities economies as well.

Ethnisierung oder Internationalisierung?

The paper examines the intersection of migration systems and urban labour markets and focusses then empirically on the case of the Turkish ethnic economy in Berlin and the ethnic structuration of its labour market. Ethnic economies are further conceptualized as functioning also gendering revolving doors between the formal and the informal segments of the labor market.

The Cuban Ethnic Economy and Labor Market Outcomes of Latinos in Metropolitan Florida

This research of 1990 census data examines the impact of the substantial entrepreneurship among Cubans in Florida’s cities on urban workers, especially on immigrants from Latin America. The large Cuban business community does not employ a significant number of Latino immigrants, except for recent Cuban immigrants. Non-Cuban Latino immigrants, however, appear quite successful in finding employment in the general economy, hired by non-Latinos. The high levels of entrepreneurship among Nicaraguans suggest that some Latino immigrants are flourishing business owners who contribute to the growth of Florida’s economy. The economic impact of Latin American migration depends on the national origin group; overall, Latino immigrants are likely to be contributors to Florida’s economy.

Globalization and human integration: we are all migrants

This paper asks whether globalization involves a trend toward human integration. It is argued that this is a long-term, uneven and paradoxical process in which widening social cooperation and deepening inequality go together. In the second part, this is examined from the point of view of migration and diasporas, whose role has been historically underestimated. Instead of looking at migration from the point of view of the nation state, one can look at the state system from the point of view of migration. The global equation is complex and there are no easy shortcuts; several pointers towards constructive analytics and politics that are discussed include the following: (1) The relativization of the nation state framework—the nation state format is making place for a wider variety of governance arrangements. (2) Intercultural relations have been crucial to ‘national accumulation’ all along, though often their contribution has not been recognized. (3) In the era of regionalization, crossborder intercultural relations build social and institutional tissue that is vital to present and future economic performance—a case in point are Euro–Arab relations. (4) Ethnic economies may interweave economic regions spatially (as in the case of the Chinese diaspora in the Pacific Basin), while interethnic economies weave institutional links across segmented social formations.

Book Review: Cubans in Puerto Rico: Ethnic Economy and Cultural Identity

Book Review: Cubans in Puerto Rico: Ethnic Economy and Cultural Identity

Ethnic Segmentation in the American Metropolis: Increasing Divergence in Economic Incorporation, 1980–1990

Based on the industrial sectors in which group members are concentrated, the ethnic economies of various racial and ethnic groups became more distinctive from one another during the 1980s. Non-Hispanic whites continued to dominate key sectors in every metropolitan area studied. Their withdrawal from some others, however, left openings for other groups in apparel manufacturing and in a variety of trade and personal service activities. The void was filled by selected immigrant groups who had already begun to establish enclave economies by 1980: especially Koreans, Chinese, and Cubans. As many as two-thirds of these groups’ members worked in their enclaves in some regions. At the same time, other immigrant and minority groups, especially blacks, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, and Filipinos remained highly dependent on employment niches in the public sector or working for other groups in the private sector. The model of a dual city (with a mainly white core economy and a minority periphery) is losing its descriptive power due to the divergent paths taken by different nonwhite groups.

Cubans in Puerto Rico: Ethnic Economy and Cultural Identity

Cubans in Puerto Rico: Ethnic Economy and Cultural Identity

Displacement and entrepreneurship: Iranian small businesses in Stockholm

Increasing unemployment in Sweden has affected non‐Western residents particularly hard. A shrinking public sector, and toughening attitudes toward migrant job‐seekers within the private sector, frequently leave self‐employment as the only option. The emergence of an ethnic economy is partly due to the opportunity structure in the host society, and partly to available ethnic resources. This article examines Iranian small businesses in Stockholm. The Swedish labour market, and the situation of Iranian migrants within it, are crucial factors in. bringing about the Iranian entry into self‐employment. Yet, ethnic resources and previous work experiences in Iran also play an important role in shaping economic activities among Iranians in Sweden. This article portrays how Iranians, whose social space has been distorted by displacement, contrive to reconstruct this in the Swedish setting.

Cubans in Puerto Rico: Ethnic Economy and Cultural Identity

Cubans in Puerto Rico: Ethnic Economy and Cultural Identity

Immigrant Incorporation in the Garment Industry of Los Angeles

Stressing the network's facilitation of immigrants’ searches for jobs and housing, migration network theory has conceptually overlooked the manner in which immigrants’ social networks also expand the supply of jobs and housing in target destinations by means of the ethnic economy. An expanded migration network theory takes into account the ethnic economy's role in creating new resources in the destination economy. However, the power of this objection wanes in the context of working-class immigrations that generate few entrepreneurs. Introduced here, the concept of immigrant economy responds to this contingency. Unlike ethnic economies, in which co-ethnics hire co-ethnics, immigrant economies arise when immigrants hire non-co-ethnic fellow immigrants. This situation usually arises when very entrepreneurial immigrant groups coexist in a labor market with working-class immigrant groups that generate few entrepreneurs of their own. Using evidence from the garment industry of Los Angeles, this paper estimates that only a third of immigrant employees found their jobs in a conventional ethnic economy. Half owed their employment to the immigrant economy in which, for the most part, Asian entrepreneurs employed Latino workers.

Race and politics: Asian Americans, Latinos, and whites in a Los Angeles suburb

California's San Gabriel Valley has been called an incubator for ethnic politics. Located a mere fifteen minutes from Los Angeles, the valley is a brave new world of multiethnic complexity.Here Latinos and Asian Americans are the dominant groups, rather than the minorities they are elsewhere in the United States. Politics are Latino-dominated, while a large infusion of Chinese immigrants and capital has made the San Gabriel Valley the center of the nation's largest Chinese ethnic economy. The white population has dropped from an overwhelming majority in 1970 to a minority in 1990.Leland T. Saito presents an insider's view of the political, economic, and cultural implications of this ethnic mix. He examines how diverse residents of the region have worked to overcome their initial antagonisms and develop new, more effective political alliances.By tracing grass-roots political organization along racial and ethnic lines, Race and Politics focuses on the construction of new identities, especially the panethnic affiliation Asian American.

Geographic Mobility of the Foreign-Born Chinese in Large Metropolises, 1985–1990

"The spatial assimilation and ethnic resources models, two major theoretical explanations of the adaptation of immigrants, provide different views on the mechanism of spatial mobility of immigrants. We used the 1990 census 5 percent Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) to analyze the migration of foreign-born Chinese in three large metropolises--New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. We tested the two explanations in this study and argue that our results largely support the assimilation model. In addition, we contend that macroeconomic conditions of ethnic enclaves and characteristics of ethnic economies are also important in affecting the geographic redistribution of immigrants." This paper was originally presented at the 1996 Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America.

José A. Cobas and Jorge Duany, Cubans in Puerto Rico: Ethnic Economy and Cultural Identity (Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 1997), pp. x+156, $39.95 hb; £36.00 hb., and Thomas A. Tweed, Our Lady of the Exile: Diasporic Religion at a Cuban Catholic Shrine in Miami (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), pp. xv+224, £27.50 hb.

José A. Cobas and Jorge Duany, Cubans in Puerto Rico: Ethnic Economy and Cultural Identity (Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 1997), pp. x+156, $39.95 hb; £36.00 hb., and Thomas A. Tweed, Our Lady of the Exile: Diasporic Religion at a Cuban Catholic Shrine in Miami (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), pp. xv+224, £27.50 hb. - Volume 31 Issue 1

HOW DO PLACES MATTER? A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CHINESE ETHNIC ECONOMIES IN LOS ANGELES AND NEW YORK CITY

Through a comparative study of Chinese ethnic economies in the New York and Los Angeles metropolitan areas, this paper examines the role of place in shaping the trajectories of immigrant communities. Substantial differences are identified among immigrant populations and development of ethnic economies between Chinese communities in New York City and Los Angeles, despite their comparable sizes. Rather than attributing the differences to the makeup of subgroups, namely Mainland Chinese versus Taiwanese, the paper pays particular attention to the interactive nature of local context and the dynamics of ethnic population and economies. I analyze the impact of historical origins of the communities, geographical locations, labor markets, urban infrastructure, and social infrastructures on the characteristics of immigrant population. The development of entrepreneurship, ethnic networks, and ethnic capital markets is also discussed as factors perpetuating differences in ethnic economies. Finally, the different levels of integration between international capital and local entrepreneurial activities also serve to further differentiate the two ethnic economies.

LOS ANGELES'S CHINESE ETHNOBURB: FROM ETHNIC SERVICE CENTER TO GLOBAL ECONOMY OUTPOST

The spatial relationship between an ethnic economy and an ethnic community is a topic of debate. The question is whether an enclave can be related to a particular spatial residential form or considered only as an economic form. I have proposed a new model of ethnic settlement: ethnoburbs, which can be recognized as suburban ethnic clusters of residential areas and business districts in large metropolitan areas. The establishment of the Chinese ethnoburb in Los Angeles's San Gabriel Valley has occurred within a framework of global, national, and place-specific conditions. This paper will address the forces underlying the development of the San Gabriel Valley ethnoburb. In particular, I emphasize (1) the relationship between the growth of an ethnoburb and its economic structure, by demonstrating the changing functions of an ethno-burban ethnic economy with its extensive international connections and its close ties to the globalized mainstream economy; and (2) the nature of the San Gabriel Valley ethnoburb as a global economic outpost in the global city of Los Angeles.

Cubans in Puerto Rico: Ethnic Economy and Cultural Identity.

A study of the migration of Cubans to Puerto Rico beginning with the early 1960s. It examines how they have assumed the minority role of the classical middleman and integrated into the community, the authors arguing that they will eventually disappear as an ethnic group as a result of this.

Cubans in Puerto Rico: Ethnic Economy and Cultural Identity

Cubans in Puerto Rico: Ethnic Economy and Cultural Identity

THE SPATIAL STRUCTURE OF URBAN ETHNIC ECONOMIES

Most studies of the economic activity of ethnic and immigrant groups have been conducted with little regard to their spatial conditions and consequences. At the same time, geographic concentration or clustering of residences and businesses is often cited as a significant element in the formation of ethnic economies. This paper argues that spatial location may operate as a defined resource in enhancing the prospects of ethnic businesses. Specifically, it examines how the geographical concentration of residences or the clustering of businesses may operate to incubate beginning businesses, foster linkages between businesses, increase the opportunities for the establishment of additional businesses, and serve as an economic and cultural focus for the ethnic community. The paper then speculates on how the spatial patterns generated by ethnic economic activity will vary depending on the type of resources utilized, the sectoral composition of the ethnic economy, and the maturity of the economy.