Abstract
■ Immigrants often depend on ethnic mutual assistance to make a start in this country. But the concept of ethnic solidarity can also be manipulated by employers to gain better control over their co-ethnic employees. In studying the predicament of Chinese immigrant workers in New York's Chinatown, and especially the Chinese illegals, this article shows that Chinese employers often invoke ethnic symbols to project an image that only co-ethnics can be trusted, thus blocking the new immigrants' attempts to seek better opportunities outside of their ethnic environment. Ultimately, this article questions the validity of the ethnic enclave thesis.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Chin, Ko-lin
(1996 ) Chinatown Gang . New York : Oxford University Press .
2.
Dwyer, Jim
(1997 ) 'Stink of Intimidation in Chinatown' , The New York Daily News 31 January.
3.
Gold, Michael
(1930 ) Jews Without Money . New York : Carroll and Graf Publishers Inc .
4.
Kinkead, Gwen
(1992 ) Chinatown: A Portrait of a Closed Society . New York : Harper-Collins .
5.
Kwong, Peter
(1998 , forthcoming) Forbidden Workers: Illegal Chinese Immigrants and American Labor . New York : New Press .
6.
Kwong, Peter
and
Dusanka Miscevic
(1990 ) 'The Year of the Horse' , Village Voice 17 July.
7.
Light, Ivan
(1972 ) Ethnic Enterprises in America: Business Welfare Among Chinese, Japanese, and Blacks . Berkeley : University of California Press .
8.
Lii, Jane H.
(1995 ) 'A Union and Waiter Face Off in Chinatown' , The New York Times 13 March.
9.
Mahler, Sarah J.
(1995 ) 'The Dysfunctions of Transnationalism' , Russell Sage Foundation, Working Paper 73.
10.
Nee, Victor G.
and
Jimmy Sanders
(1987 ) 'Limits of Ethnic Solidarity in the Enclave Economy'
American Sociology Review
52 : 745 -73 .
11.News Release from Attorney General Dennis C . Vacco , 23 January 1997 .
12.
Ong, Paul
(1984 ) 'Chinatown Unemployment and the Ethnic Labor Market' , Amerasia Journal
II (1 ): 35 -54 .
13.
Portes, Alejandro
and
Robert Bach
(1985 ) Latin Journey: Cuban and Mexican Immigrants in the United States . Berkeley : University of California Press .
14.
Schmitt, Eric
(1997 ) 'Illegal Immigrants Rose to 5 Million in '96' , The New York Times 8 February.
15.
Weissman, Rachel X.
(1997 ) 'Reaping what They Sew ', Brooklyn Bridge
2 (9 ): 52 -3 .
16.
Zhou, Min
(1992 ) Chinatown: The Socioeconomic Potential of an Urban Enclave . Philadelphia, PA : Temple University Press .