Ethnic Enclaves Research Articles

Yoshitaka Ishikawa (ed.): Ethnic Enclaves in Contemporary Japan

Yoshitaka Ishikawa (ed.): Ethnic Enclaves in Contemporary Japan

Is Living in an Ethnic Enclave Associated With Cognitive Function? Results From the Population Study of Chinese Elderly (PINE) in Chicago.

Ethnic enclaves provide pivotal coping resources for immigrants, having important implications for cognitive health. This study examined the association between living in an ethnic enclave (i.e., Chinatown) and cognition, and potential moderating effect of education on such an association among Chinese older immigrants in the United States. We further examined subgroup differences based on preferred language (Mandarin, Cantonese, and Taishanese). Data were derived from the Population Study of Chinese Elderly in Chicago (N = 3,105, mean age = 73). Global cognition, assessed by a battery including Mini-Mental State Examination, working memory, episodic memory, and executive function, was compared between those who lived in Chinatown (n = 1,870) and those who did not (n = 1,235). Linear regressions with interaction terms were performed in the entire sample and subsamples with different language preferences. Chinatown residents had significantly poorer cognition than non-Chinatown residents. Regression results identified both protective and risk factors for cognition associated with living in Chinatown. Among them, education (β = 0.072, p < .001) played a salient role in explaining the cognitive disadvantage of Chinatown residents. Education also moderated the influence of Chinatown residence on cognition, but only among Mandarin speakers (β = -0.027, p = .04). Living in an ethnic enclave may be a risk factor for poor cognition for Chinese immigrants. Neighborhood-specific health assessment may facilitate early identification and prevention of cognitive impairment in this population. Studies need to examine divergent aging experiences of immigrants within single ethnic groups.

Effects of Settlement into Ethnic Enclaves on Immigrant Voter Turnout

What is the effect of residing in ethnic enclaves on immigrants’ future political participation? We study a comprehensive refugee placement reform that was implemented in Sweden in the mid-1980s in...

School as an Entrepreneurial Enclave

Abstract Studies of ethnic entrepreneurship usually concentrate on the ethnic economy in the global north to argue the importance of structural and cultural factors. Based on previous studies and the author’s own work in Dongguan and Jakarta, this article explains how entrepreneurial culture of Taiwanese enterprises, often referred to as Taishang culture, is partially sustained and reproduced through the activities of two ethnic schools in these two cities. The overlapping membership of schools and Taishang chambers of commerce means that ethnic schools are also designed and operated to support the development of Taiwanese enterprises. These ethnic schools are not only institutions for educating Taiwanese children but also the de-facto ethnic enclave for consolidating and reproducing Taishang culture. The two schools also reflect differences in Taishang culture, which are shaped by how Taiwanese enterprises survive and thrive in different contexts.

Urban ethnic enclaves and migration industries: The urban choices of mobile people

When migrants come in large numbers, they tend to segregate in enclaves where they lead a familiar lifestyle alongside people who can provide a support system. But how do these enclaves come about? This paper engages with migration industries literature, saying that it is ‘the labour involved in managing, facilitating and controlling migration’ that makes it an industry. Relying on the case of privileged Jewish migration to Israel, I argue that while the state remains central in facilitating and controlling migration, migration industries and migrants’ social networks dictate in which urban areas privileged migrants settle, creating unequal urban geographies. To illustrate this, I rely on qualitative data gathered in two research projects I completed in Israel over the past decade, in various Israeli cities relating to migrants and second-home owners from Western countries. I look at how and why people decide where to settle upon migrating and the role of various migration industries actors in their choices. I argue that what seems like individual decision-making is in fact a ‘structured agency’, repeating patterns of the imagined urban geographies produced by agents of migration and various urban stakeholders. The result is unequal patterns of location and consumption, where privileged migrants locate in urban enclaves, distancing themselves from other groups and causing gentrification.

Moving Encounters With Spatial Racism: Walking in San Jose Japantown

In this article, I address how walking as a curatorial practice of storying a neighborhood facilitates an irreducible politics of place occurring as affective intensities at various registers, where everyday movements entangle with spatial enactments of racism. Working with theories of assemblage and immanent movement, I examine walking narratives in San Jose Japantown, California (U.S.), a historic, ethnic neighborhood historically subjected to U.S. government and banking practices of “redlining” and Japanese American incarceration and dislocation to prison camps. As an analytical method, assemblage requires attention to movement: material elements of arrangement, the relations they require, new arranging and arrangements they might enable, and how these arrangements are legitimated. I examine spatial racism as an assemblage, analyzing its affective qualities wherein attentiveness to immanent movement might breach the assemblage and, in doing so, reach toward radical reformation through memorialization, community activism and development.

Demographic and Economic Potential of Migration from Latin America

The article examines the demographic and economic potential of organizing a new migration flow from LatinAmerica to Russia. In the context of the demographic crisis in which Russia is located, and the low fertility of Russian women, scientists see the only way to preserve and increase the population of the Russian Federation – migration. However, the quality and level of migration that exists in Russia today is problematic. Migrants from the former Soviet republics form ethnic enclaves, do not want to assimilate, and damage the Russian economy by withdrawing funds outside the Russian Federation. Under these conditions, the author proposes to organize an irrevocable migration from Latin American countries, which will solve the demographic problem by naturalizing Latinos who are mentally close to Russians, and stabilize the Russian economy due to the influx of workers, as well as a significant reduction in money transfers abroad due to the low exchange rate of the ruble against the dollar, and, in this regard, the unattractiveness of Russia as a donor of material resources. At the same time, the organization of this migration flow will “unload” the region. Russia will accept migrants who want to leave their countries that are in political and economic crisis, but whose entry into the territory of neighboring states and the United States is difficult. The organization of this migration flow will also help the Russian Federation to gain geopolitical partners in the problematic region. The author examines all the positive and negative aspects of the organization of this migration flow, presents applied technologies for organizing migration from Latin America. The author uses statistical materials, scientific research data and publications in the media that reflect the content of the studied problems. The material of this article is a project, the organization of which will require further study and significant methodological efforts. The proposed concept of organizing irrevocable migration from Latin American countries can be a way out of the complex crisis that has developed in Russia and in Latin American countries.

Ethnic Protection Rackets: Turkish Cypriot Statebuilding before 1974

ABSTRACT For the ten years prior to the Turkish partition of Cyprus into Greek and Turkish Cypriot zones, the Turkish Cypriot community lived in distinct ethnic enclaves governed by a parallel Turkish Cypriot administration. I argue that Turkish Cypriot elites formed a system of reciprocal relations with their community by acting as ethnic protection racketeers. With few material resources, but a demand for protection during intercommunal fighting, Turkish Cypriot leaders monopolised protection over and within enclaves, while also deterring co-ethnics from leaving their protection despite poor conditions. Ultimately, this influenced Turkish Cypriot preferences in UN-led talks, demanding to retain autonomy over specific territories they controlled, especially in providing security.

Residence in a Hispanic Enclave Is Associated with Inferior Overall Survival among Children with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.

Hispanic children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) experience poorer overall survival (OS) than non-Hispanic White children; however, few studies have investigated the social determinants of this disparity. In Texas, many Hispanic individuals reside in ethnic enclaves—areas with high concentrations of immigrants, ethnic-specific businesses, and language isolation, which are often socioeconomically deprived. We determined whether enclave residence was associated with ALL survival, overall and among Hispanic children. We computed Hispanic enclave index scores for Texas census tracts, and classified children (N = 4083) as residing in enclaves if their residential tracts scored in the highest statewide quintile. We used Cox regression to evaluate the association between enclave residence and OS. Five-year OS was 78.6% for children in enclaves, and 77.8% for Hispanic children in enclaves, both significantly lower (p < 0.05) than the 85.8% observed among children not in enclaves. Children in enclaves had increased risk of death (hazard ratio (HR) 1.20, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.01–1.49) after adjustment for sex, age at diagnosis, year of diagnosis, metropolitan residence and neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation and after further adjustment for child race/ethnicity (HR 1.19, 95% CI 0.97–1.45). We observed increased risk of death when analyses were restricted to Hispanic children specifically (HR 1.30, 95% CI 1.03–1.65). Observations suggest that children with ALL residing in Hispanic enclaves experience inferior OS.

Immigration, segregation and neighborhood change in Berlin

Even though the issue of immigrant-native segregation in Europe has been continuously researched for the last thirty years the attempts to illuminate the changing levels of ethnic segregation in the European city in the 21st century leave the case of Germany largely unexplored. The aim of this paper is to shed light on the evolving patterns of segregation and neighborhood change in Berlin in the 2010s (2007-2016). The traditional indices of segregation and the neighborhood typology are used to assess changes in the levels of segregation and patterns of residential intermixing, respectively. We also employ the sequence analysis method to investigate full trajectories of neighborhood change, and a regression tree for the sequences of neighborhood transitions is used to evaluate the effect of urban structure on ethnic neighborhood change. Despite considerable immigration, in total, immigrant-native segregation in Berlin declined over the last decade. Three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, along with the selective spatial effects of international immigration, the spatial division of Berlin into the inner- and outer-city appears to be a decisive factor in the evolution of the local patterns of immigrant-native residential intermixing.

The Role of Immigrant Enclaves and Ambient Air Pollution Exposure in the Immigrant Birthweight Paradox

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Foreign-born Black and Latina women have higher birthweight infants that their US-born counterparts, despite generally worse socioeconomic status and prenatal care access, i.e. immigrant birthweight paradox (IBP). Residence in immigrant enclaves and associated socio-cultural and economic benefits may be drivers of IBP. Yet, enclaves are known to have higher air pollution, a risk factor for lower birthweight. We investigated IBP accounting for both residential immigrant composition and air pollution exposure. METHODS: In the Boston-based Children’s HealthWatch cohort of non-smoking women-child dyads (n=2,116), we obtained birthweight-for-gestational age z-scores (BWGAZ) for US-born births from 2006-2015. Using maternal address, we estimated trimester-specific PM2.5 concentrations, proximity to major roadways, and immigrant orientation level based on census-tract percentages of foreign-born, non-citizen, and linguistically-isolated households (proxy for immigrant enclave). We fit multivariable linear regressions of BWGAZ by maternal nativity and sequentially adjusted for immigrant orientation and ambient air pollution sources. We also examined effect modification of IBP by immigrant orientation. RESULTS:Fifty-one percent of women were foreign-born. Immigrant orientation was negatively correlated with PM2.5 concentrations and proximity to major roads. Overall, children of foreign-born women had 0.19 (95% CI: 0.10, 0.28) higher mean BWGAZ than those of US-born mothers, demonstrating IBP in our cohort. BWGAZ did not significantly change after adjustment for immigrant orientation and air pollution sources. However, we found an additive effect of immigrant orientation on maternal nativity (p-interaction: ≤0.01), with IBP observed only in moderate (0.27, 95% CI: 0.09, 0.46) and high (0.29, 95% CI: 0.15, 0.44) immigrant-oriented tracts. CONCLUSIONS:Foreign-born women in higher immigrant-oriented areas had higher BWGAZ, supporting the role of immigrant enclaves on IBP. Prenatal air pollution exposure did not impact associations observed in this study. Future research should consider the role of immigrant enclaves and their spatial correlation with potential protective resources and environmental risk factors. KEYWORDS: Air pollution, Particulate matter, Birth outcomes, Environmental disparities, Exposures, Environmental epidemiology

What do farmers bring to market? Exploring good types, number of vendors, and founding dates by SES and race/ethnicity

Farmers markets have been promoted as an avenue to improve access to food in neighborhoods that have been traditionally underserved by other outlets. Residents of these neighborhoods are encouraged to attend market sessions because the foods available are thought to increase access to foods that are healthier and of more variety. While previous studies have shown that farmers markets are choosing to locate in underserved areas, little research has examined how often this is occurring and what these markets offer to customers. Using survey data from 560 farmers markets across nine U.S. states and demographic data from the American Community Survey, this analysis contributes to this understanding by comparing and contrasting the founding years, number of vendors, and types of goods available at markets by neighborhood socio-economic status and racial/ethnic composition. Results show a more recent growth of farmers markets in low-income neighborhoods when compared to more affluent neighborhoods and a relative similarity of growth when looking at racial and ethnic composition. However, the types of goods available and number of vendors are significantly lower in low socio-economic status and high racial and ethnic minority neighborhoods when compared to more affluent and whiter neighborhoods. This suggests that there is continued and increasing farmers market presence in areas traditionally underrepresented, but that there is more work to be done to increase the number of vendors present and the diversity of offerings at these markets.

Racializing Ethnic Entrepreneurship: Chinese Entrepreneurship in the Deep South

The research on ethnic entrepreneurship is prolific. Yet very rarely have scholars examined ethnic entrepreneurship through the lens of race and racialization. By using the example of Chinese-owned grocery stores in the Mississippi Delta region during the Jim Crow era, this article attempts to bridge the studies on migration, race, ethnic entrepreneurship, and place. Neither middleman minority nor ethnic enclave economy alone, the two main paradigms within the literature of ethnic entrepreneurship, fully explains the phenomenon of Chinese grocery stores in the Black communities in the U.S. South. By examining ethnic entrepreneurship through the lens of race and racialization, this article also explores the interracial relationships between Asian and Black communities by comparing and contrasting the Korean–Black relationship in Los Angeles and Chinese–Black relationship in the Delta. Despite the institutional barriers against interracial solidarity under the regime of White supremacy, which places Asian and Black communities in opposition to each other, certain historical and geographical contexts that facilitate interracial coembeddedness contribute to intercultural communications among communities of color and thus a more intimate interracial relationship.

Antecedents of business location decisions: the case of aspiring immigrant opportunity entrepreneurs

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate aspiring immigrant opportunity (AIO) entrepreneurs' start-up location decisions.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used conjoint analysis to explore 1,264 location decisions nested within 79 highly educated, first-generation AIO entrepreneurs.FindingsThe authors found that although government support positively influences business location decisions, network support decreases the perceived benefits of government support for AIO entrepreneurs. Furthermore, locations with high costs of doing business are unattractive to AIO entrepreneurs, but financial capital access through ethnic and nonethnic sources in these locations enhances the appeal of high-cost locations.Research limitations/implicationsThe generalizability of the findings to AIO entrepreneurs should be considered with caution. Future research should longitudinally examine immigrant opportunity entrepreneurs' location decisions and their implications for their start-up and community-level performance outcomes. The authors also encourage replication of the study.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study have implications for AIO entrepreneurs who intend to make start-up location decisions. Also, government policymakers can use the findings of this study to better attract AIO entrepreneurs to different locations.Originality/valueBy integrating ethnic enclave theory and location theory, this research contributes to theory and practice about immigrant opportunity entrepreneurs' start-up location decisions which are currently underexplored in the immigrant entrepreneurship literature.

Place Attachment and Alienation from Place: Cultural Displacement in Gentrifying Ethnic Enclaves

Commercial gentrification often accompanies residential gentrification. Both processes contribute to the real or perceived threat of displacement for longtime residents of ethnic enclaves experiencing gentrification. Cultural displacement is a related concern among residents who may experience a declining sense of ownership, control, or belonging as newer residents and commercial establishments move into their communities. Yet, other longtime residents experience an increased sense of safety as their neighborhoods gentrify and they may appreciate the new amenities gentrification brings. I highlight the symbolic significance of local businesses in gentrifying neighborhoods and identify two different patterns of longtime residents experiencing their communities as something alien to them—a phenomenon I call alienation from place. Alienation from place may be a product of social and cultural displacement or may be alleviated by changes to a neighborhood accompanying gentrification processes, a posteriori alienation from place and a priori alienation from place, respectively.

Loving My New Neighbor: The Korean-American Methodists’ Response to the UMC Debate over LGBTQ Individuals in Everyday Life

The recent nationwide debate of American Protestant churches over the ordination and consecration of LGBTQ clergymen and laypeople has been largely divisive and destructive. While a few studies have paid attention to individual efforts of congregations to negotiate the heated conflicts as their contribution to the denominational debate, no studies have recounted how post-1965 immigrants, often deemed as “ethnic enclaves apart from larger American society”, respond to this religious issue. Drawing on an ethnographic study of a first-generation Korean Methodist church in the Tampa Bay area, Florida, this article attempts to fill this gap in the literature. In brief, I argue that the Tampa Korean-American Methodists’ continual exposure to the Methodist Church’s larger denominational homosexuality debate and their personal relationships with gay and lesbian friends in everyday life together work to facilitate their gradual tolerance toward sexual minorities as a sign of their accommodation of individualistic and democratic values of American society.

COVID-19 Leads to Dramatic Changes in the Food Retail Environment in New York City: May-July 2020.

A systematic assessment of the effect of COVID-19 on the food retail environment—an important determinant of health—has not been conducted. Our objective was to assess the impact of COVID-19 on closures of restaurants, food retail stores, and fresh produce vendors in New York City (NYC). We conducted a cross-sectional study following the peak of COVID-19 in six neighborhoods in NYC. Two Chinese ethnic neighborhoods and four higher/lower resourced comparison neighborhoods were selected a priori based on 14 sociodemographic indicators. The primary outcome was indefinite/temporary closures or absence of food businesses. Of 2720 food businesses identified, produce vendors and restaurants were more likely to close than food retail stores. A higher proportion of food businesses closed in Chinese ethnic neighborhoods vs. comparison neighborhoods. COVID-19 impacted food businesses in six NYC neighborhoods examined in this period, with the greatest effect observed for Chinese ethnic neighborhoods.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10903-021-01230-7.

Africans in Guangzhou: Is the ethnic enclave model applicable in the Chinese context?

In the literature on the incorporation of immigrants, ethnic enclaves are described as residential spatial concentrations fulfilling several economic and social functions for its residents. This paper questions whether this model is applicable for understanding the African concentration in China. Based on fieldwork in 2012 and 2016, this paper tries to give an overview of the changing dispersal patterns of Africans in Guangzhou and to explain how the new African clusters are connected to the areas where African businesses are concentrated. The initial African clusters may have lost their dominant role in the housing of African migrants, yet they are the focal point of the African communities in Guangzhou, as both commercial and leisure activities remain concentrated here. We argue that while there is no enclave (anymore) in the sense of a contingent area where Africans constitute a big part of the population, the African clusters still fulfils some functions that are associated with an ethnic enclave. However, the obstacles that the Chinese authorities put in the way of obtaining a long-term residence permit make it highly unlikely that African clusters in Guangzhou will develop into the type of ethnic enclaves that are described in the Anglo-Saxon literature.

Ethnic Enclaves, Economic and Political Threat: An Investigation With the European Social Survey.

This article examines the labor market outcomes and political preferences of majority, minority, or migrant individuals who report that they live in an ethnic enclave—a neighborhood with few majority residents. Politicians often proclaim that ethnic enclaves are problematic, but there is little rigorous examination of these claims. The ethnic composition of a local residential area can affect its inhabitants negatively by increasing conflict and competition (real or perceived) between groups. Majority members may feel their economic and political power questioned and think that the resources to which they are entitled have been usurped by newcomers. Migrants and minorities can be negatively impacted by isolation from the mainstream society, and their integration attempts can be hindered in ethnically concentrated local areas. Using data from the 2002 and 2014 waves of the European Social Survey, enriched with contextual data, we examine the impact of ethnic enclaves accounting for selection and compositional differences. We do not find evidence that minority concentrated areas impact negatively upon the economic outcomes of majority members, not even of those in precarious positions. We do however find that residence in enclaves is associated with greater propensity to vote for the far right and dissatisfaction with democracy for the majority group. Furthermore, there is an economic enclave penalty associated with the labor market insertion of migrants and the job quality of the second generation, and ethnic enclaves also increase the dissatisfaction with democracy among the second generation. We discuss our findings in light of the threat and contact literature.

A study on the discrepancies between immigrants working in the regular and the ethnic enclave sectors in the Canadian Labor market

ABSTRACT This paper studies performance differences between immigrants working in the regular Canadian labour market and those in the ethnic enclave sector of the economy. First, by studying the effects of education and race on the weekly wage earnings, I find that the returns to education are greater and being a visible minority carries less of a wage penalty for immigrants working in the regular sector compared with those in the enclave sector. Moreover, taking the AMEs (Average Marginal Effects) studies, I document different effects of education and race on both earnings and job segment for these two types of immigrants and propose an explanation. After this, I compute task supply and wage gaps between different types of immigrants in three census years to show differences in assimilation by immigration cohort. Finally, I use regression models to study immigrants’ task supply and weekly wages so that we can have a fuller view of the differences in performance between immigrants working in the regular and enclave sectors. I also use these models to analyse differences between immigrants and natives in Canada.