Ethnic Enclaves and the Earnings of Immigrants

Abstract

A large literature in sociology concerns the implications of immigrants’ participation in ethnic enclaves for their economic and social well-being. The “enclave thesis” speculates that immigrants benefit from working in ethnic enclaves. Previous research concerning the effects of enclave participation on immigrants’ economic outcomes has come to mixed conclusions as to whether enclave effects are positive or negative. In this article, we seek to extend and improve upon past work by formulating testable hypotheses based on the enclave thesis and testing them with data from the 2003 New Immigrant Survey (NIS), employing both residence-based and workplace-based measures of the ethnic enclave. We compare the economic outcomes of immigrants working in ethnic enclaves with those of immigrants working in the mainstream economy. Our research yields minimal support for the enclave thesis. Our results further indicate that for some immigrant groups, ethnic enclave participation actually has a negative effect on economic outcomes.

Disaggregating Data on Asian American and Pacific Islander Women to Provide New Insights on Potential Exposures to Hazardous Air Pollutants in California

“…Our findings for geographic concentrations by ethnicity and by other sociodemographic factors are consistent with the concept of "ethnic enclaves," referring to a high concentration of coethnic individuals, often immigrants, who are geographically concentrated usually for purposes of immigrant adaptation and economic support (44,45). Ethnic enclaves for AAPI populations have inspired names such as Chinatown, Japantown, Koreatown, and Little Saigon (46,47).…”

The Effect of Ethnic Clustering on Migrant Integration in Germany

“…Regarding wages, empirical results are equally mixed. While a few studies find positive wage effects (Cutler et al, 2008;Damm, 2009;Edin et al, 2003), other find negative ones (Borjas, 2000;Warman, 2007) or an insignificant relationship (Chowdhury and Pedace, 2007;Pedace and Rohn, 2008;Xie and Gough, 2011). Goel and Lang (2009) show that social networks can help immigrants find jobs faster but also at a lower wage.…”

“…Portes, 1987), even though the effects of immigrant self-employment on earnings are unclear (Logan et al, 2003;Portes and Zhou, 1996). In addition, regarding larger ethnic businesses, chances of finding employment are independent from the host country's human capital, which increases the likelihood to find a job (McManus, 1990) and returns higher wages due to better transferability of human capital (Wilson and Portes, 1980;Xie and Gough, 2011;Zhou and Logan, 1989). On the other hand, Borjas (2000) and Tu (2010) argue that enclave labour markets generally pay lower wages due to monopsy power.…”

Cultural Integration and Occupational Achievement among Mexican Immigrants along the US-Mexico Border

“…This may be caused by the fact that Mexican immigrants are more likely to live in ethnic enclaves and maintain strong ties to their home country. Xie and Gough (2011) calculates an a little over 10 per cent earning penalty from working in the enclaves -which should not be surprising. Lastly, positive changes in attitudes toward immigrants and the institutional framework that provides immigrants with a legal certainty about their future would significantly improve cultural integration.…”