The author examines how immigrant networks and labor segmentation by race and gender facilitate inequality in immigrant-owned restaurants. The author conducted three months of participant observation at an immigrant-owned restaurant and supplemental interviews with 18 workers and owners at similar restaurants in Austin, Texas. Labor segmentation by gender and race resulted in varied degrees of wage inequality, surveillance, and exposure to hazardous working conditions. Also, although ethnic networks among workers offer benefits, embedded in these networks are unwritten rules of obligation, gift giving, and repayment. Shared ethnicity or identity as immigrants did not prevent immigrant owners from exploiting workers of the same ethnicity and other immigrant workers. Ultimately, the author argues that ethnic networks are embedded in the larger economy and context of racial-ethnic hierarchies. This research sheds light on everyday interactions among Asian immigrant restaurant owners and workers. The author highlights how an uncritical focus on the benefits of ethnic networks obscures constraints in social networks.
AckerJoan. 2006. “Inequality Regimes: Gender, Class, and Race in Organizations.” Gender and Society20(4):441–64.
2.
AnthiasFloya. 2007. “Ethnic Ties: Social Capital and the question of mobilisability.” The Sociological Review55(4):788–805.
3.
AvenariusChristine B. 2012. “Immigrant Networks in New Urban Spaces: Gender and Social Integration.” International Migration50(5):25–55.
4.
BailyThomasWaldingerRoger. 1991. “Primary, Secondary, and Enclave Labor Markets: A Training Systems Approach.” American Sociological Review56(4):432–45.
5.
BashiVilna. 2007. Survival of the Knitted: Immigrant Social Networks in a Stratified World. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.
6.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2015. “Employed Person by Detailed Occupation, Sex, Race, and Hispanic or Latino Ethnicity.” Current Population Survey. Retrieved April10, 2017 (http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.htm).
7.
ColemanJames S.1988. “Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital.” American Journal of Sociology94(1):95–120.
8.
CranfordCynthia. 2005. “Networks of Exploitation: Immigrant Labor and the Restructuring of the Los Angeles Janitorial Industry.” Social Problems52(3):379–97.
9.
FineGary Alan. 1996. Kitchens: The Culture of Restaurant Work. Berkeley: University of California Press.
10.
GranovetterMark. 1973. “The Strength of Weak Ties.” American Journal of Sociology78(6):1360–1380.
11.
GranovetterMark. 1985. “Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness.” American Journal of Sociology91(3):481–510.
12.
HaganJacqueline. 1998. “Social Networks, Gender, and Immigrant Incorporation: Resources and Constraints.” American Sociological Review63(1):55–67.
13.
HarrisDeborahGiuffrePatti. 2015. Taking the Heat: Women Chefs and Gender Inequality in the Professional Kitchen. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
14.
HoangKimberly K.2015. “Nailing Race and Labor Relations: Vietnamese Nail Salons in Majority-minority Neighborhoods.” Journal of Asian American Studies18(2):113–39.
15.
HochschildArlie Russel. 1983. The Managed Heart. Berkeley: University of California Press.
16.
Hondagneu-SoteloPierrette. 1994. “Regulating the Unregulated? Domestic Workers’ Social Networks.” Social Problems41(1):50–64.
17.
JacobsAnnaPadavicIrene. 2015. “Hours, Scheduling and Flexibility for Women in the US Low-wage Labour Force.” Gender, Work and Organization22(1):67–86.
18.
JayarmanSaru. 2014. Behind the Kitchen Door. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
19.
KallickDavidParrottJamesMauroFrank. 2012. Immigrant Small Business Owners: A Significant and Growing Part of the Economy. New York: Fiscal Policy Institute’s Immigration Research Initiative.
20.
LambertSusan. 2008. “Passing the Buck: Labor Flexibility Practices That Transfer Risk on to Hourly Workers.” Human Relations61(9):1203–27
21.
LanceeBram. 2012. “The Economic Returns of Bonding and Bridging Social Capital of Immigrant Men in Germany.” Ethnic and Racial Studies35(4):664–83.
22.
LeidnerRobin. 1993. Fast Food, Fast Talk: Service Work and the Routinization of Everyday Life. Berkeley: University of California Press.
23.
LevittPeggy. 2002. “The Ties That Change: Relations to Ancestral Home over the Life Cycle.” Pp. 123–44 in The Changing Face of Home: Transnational Lives of the Second Generation, edited by LevittPeggyWatersM.New York: Russell Sage.
24.
LightIvan. 1972. Ethnic Enterprise in America. Berkeley: University of California Press.
25.
MahlerSarah. 1995. American Dreaming: Immigrant Life on the Margins. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
26.
MasseyDouglasEspanaFilipe Garcia. 1987. “The Social Process of International Migration.” Science237(4816):733–38.
27.
McDonaldSteveGaddisMichaelTrimbleLindseyHammLindsay. 2013. “Frontiers of Sociological Research on Networks, Work, and Inequality.” Networks, Work, and Inequality: Research in the Sociology of Work24:1–41.
28.
MenjivarCecilia. 2000. Fragmented Ties: Salvadoran Immigrant Networks in America. Berkeley: University of California Press.
29.
NirSarah Maslin. 2015a[b]. “Perfect Nails, Poisoned Workers.” The New York Times, May8.
30.
NirSarah Maslin. 2015b[a]. “The Price of Nice Nails.” The New York Times, May7.
31.
ParkLisa. 2005. Consuming Citizenship: Children of Asian Entrepreneurs. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.
32.
PortesAlejandroLandoltPatricia. 1996. “The Downside of Social Capital.” American Prospect26(1):18–22.
33.
RaijmanRebecaTiendaMarta. 2003. “Ethnic Foundations of Economic Transactions: Mexican and Korean Immigrant Entrepreneurs in Chicago.” Ethnic and Racial Studies26(5):783–801.
34.
RosalesRocio. 2014. “Stagnant Immigrant Social Networks and Cycles of Exploitation.” Ethnic and Racial Studies37(14):2564–79.
35.
RitzerGeorge. 2001. The McDonaldization of Society. 7th ed.Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
36.
RyanLouise. 2011. “Migrants’ Social Networks and Weak Ties: Accessing Resources and Constructing Relationships Post-migration.” Sociological Review59(4):707–24.
37.
SachsCarolynAllenPatriciaTermanA. RachelHaydenJenniferHatcherChristina. 2014. “Front and Back of the House: Socio-spatial Inequalities in Food Work.” Agriculture and Human Values31(1):3–17.
38.
SandersJimmyNeeVictor. 1987. “Limits of Ethnic Solidarity.” American Sociological Review52(6):745–73.
39.
SandersJimmyNeeVictorSernauScott. 2002. “Asian Immigrants’ Reliance on Social Ties in a Multiethnic Labor Market.” Social Forces81(1):281–314.
40.
SassenSaskia. 1991. The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
41.
ShierholzHeidi. 2014. “Low Wages and Few Benefits Mean Many Restaurant Workers Can’t Make Ends Meet.” Economic Policy Institute. Retrieved April10, 2017 (http://www.epi.org/publication/restaurant-workers/).
42.
SongMiri. 1997. “Children’s Labour in Ethnic Family Businesses: The Case of Chinese Take-away Business in Britain.” Ethnic and Racial Studies20(4):690–716.
43.
TalwarJ. P.2002. Fast Food, Fast Track: Immigrants, Big Business, and the American Dream. Boulder, CO: Westview.
44.
ValdezZulema. 2008. “Beyond Ethnic Entrepreneurship: An Embedded Market Approach to Group Affiliation in American Enterprise.” Race, Gender, & Class15(1–2):156–69.
45.
WaldingerRogerLichterMichael L.2003. How the Other Half Works: Immigration and the Social Organization of Labor. Berkeley: University of California Press.
46.
WilliamsChristine. 2004. “Inequality in the Toy Store.” Qualitative Sociology27(4):459–84.
