Immigrant Enclaves: An Analysis of the Labor Market Experiences of Cubans in Miami

Abstract

Data from a longitudinal sample of Cuban CmigrCs are used to test competing hypotheses about the mode of incorporation of new immigrants into the U.S. labor market. Classic theories of assimilation assumed a unified economy in which immigrants started at the bottom and gradually moved up occupationally, while they gained social acceptance. Recent dual labor market theories define new immigrants mainly as additions to the secondary labor market linked with small peripheral firms. Multivariate analyses confirm the existence of the primary/secondary dichotomy but add to it a third alternative condition. This is the enclave economy associated with immigrant-owned firms. While most immigrant enterprises are small, competitive ones, enclave workers show distinct characteristics, including a significant return to past human capital investments. Such a return is absent among immigrant workers in the secondary labor market. Causes and implications of these findings are discussed. The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which the phenomenon of self-enclosed minorities modifies general labor processes in the U.S. economy. Empirical data with which to address this question come from a sample of recently arrived Cuban CmigrCs. The classic sociological literature on immigrant minorities uniformly portrayed the adaptation process as one in which initial economic hardships and discrimination gave way to gradual acceptance by members of the dominant groups and eventual assimilation. With minor variations, different authors identified the culmination of the process as the entrance of immigrants, or their descendants, into the mainstream of the economy and their cultural fusion with the majority (Handlin

Income Advantages of Poorly Qualified Immigrant Minorities: Why School Dropouts of Turkish Origin Earn More in Germany

“…First, one of the most important and well-established explanations of how minorities fare in labor markets focuses on immigrant minorities' location in areas of particular productivity due to chain migration and the social capital generated in the ethnic communities of these areas (Portes and Rumbaut 2006, p. 85-93;Wilson and Portes 1980). While their location in areas of particular productivity cannot easily account for the access of persons of Turkish origin to jobs for which they seem underqualified, employment in the ethnic economy might.…”

Relations between Second-Language Proficiency and National Identification: The Case of Immigrants in Germany

“…Among some immigrant minorities, primarily in the US, a successful integration was achieved through maintenance of their cultural and social origin-based preferences (Portes and Rumbaut, 2001;Wilson and Portes, 1980;Zhou, 1997). Alternatively, immigrants in the US were also increasingly found to assimilate into the American underclass or inner-city ghettos (e.g., Wilson 1991).…”

Violent Crime, Residential Instability and Mobility: Does the Relationship Differ in Minority Neighborhoods?

“…Third, the ethnic enclave literature suggests that Latino immigrant neighborhoods might have a particularly protective effect (Wilson and Portes 1980). Despite general economic deprivation in such neighborhoods, the presence of dense network ties in these neighborhoods may foster the sort of informal social control that helps reduce crime.…”