THE BIRTHING PROCESS: A STUDY OF EMBRYONIC ETHNIC ENCLAVES
Curt
H. Stiles, Seton Hall University
Craig S. Galbraith, University of North Carolina, Wilmington
Jacqueline Benitez, University of North Carolina, Wilmington
Principal Topic
Studies of ethnic enclaves have focused on establishing the definition of an enclave and on discovering a connection between the enclave and increased entrepreneurial activity. It is less understood what causes the formation of the enclave in the first place. The current study addresses this question by looking at ethnic enclaves in their embryonic form, at the prevailing economic and demographic conditions of their general environment and at the social, political, and economic institutions that precipitate their conception and shape their development. What conditions provide the catalysts? What human institutions provide the cornerstones? Why does an enclave begin to develop among one ethnic group and not another and at one time and place and not another?
Method
Census data is used to identify ethnicity and to locate co-ethnic concentrations at the level of the census tract. SBDC records are used to identify ethnic owned small businesses within the geographic ethnic concentrations, and the businesses are classified by ethnicity of ownership and employment, size, activity, and trade with co-ethnics. Comparison is made of two regional economic systems that are currently experiencing the early stages of heavy Hispanic immigration, one with a history of ethnic homogeneity and integration within the general labor market and the other with a history of ethnic heterogeneity and fragmentation among numerous non-Hispanic ethnic groups.
Results and Implications
A chronology is established for the appearance and growth of Hispanic spatial concentration, Hispanic business formation, and co-employment of Hispanic labor. Interviews identify community social and religious organizations, social networks, and leaders around which concentration and social interaction forms and that precede the birth of Hispanic enclave businesses. In general, Hispanic business formation is preceded by social network formation, and the networks appear to be centered not so much on language or nationality as on involvement in traditional religious organizations. The role of religious communities in the formation of ethnic enclaves deserves additional attention.
CONTACT: Curt Stiles, Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ 070079; (T) 973-761-9505; (F) 973-761-9217; stilescu@shu.edu
2002 Babson College. All Rights Reserved. Last Updated March 2003.