Chinatown: The Socioeconomic Potential of an Urban Enclave

Author: Min Zhou

Publisher: Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992

Language: English

ISBN: 1-56639-337-X (paper)

Awards: Honorable Mention, Robert E. Park Award, American Sociological Association

Description:

Min Zhou examines how an ethnic enclave works to direct its members into American society, while at the same time shielding it from it. Through a modern and thorough treatment of New York's Chinatown as a socioeconomic enclave, Zhou argues that Chinese does not keep immigrant Chinese from assimilating into mainstream society, but instead provides an alternative means to incorporation into society that does not conflict with cultural distinctiveness.

Table of Contents:

1. Introduction

2. Memories of Sojourning

3. Changes in Recent Chinese Immigration

4. Uprooted: The New Arrivals

5. The Rise of the Economic Enclave

6. The Ethnic Labor Force and Its Labor Market Experience

7. The Other Half of the Sky: Socioeconomic Adaptation of Immigrant Women

8. Residential Mobility and Ethnic Segregation

9. Conclusion: Rising Out of Chinatown

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