An ethnic
enclave is a sociologist term to describe immigrant groups which
concentrate in a distinct spatial location, organize a variety of
enterprises which serve their own ethnic market and/or the general
population. Some
immigrants live and work in the enclave. Examples of these included
Little Italy and
Chinatowns.
Implications of this
theory are that segregations is not always costly.
Ethnic enclaves behave much like the primary labor marker (employers have
privileged access to a special
labor force; workers have unique opportunities to make it within the ethnic enclave).
The enclaves are sources of ethnic
solidarity: ethnic employers are obliged to reserve
supervisory positions for ethnic employers and they provide opportunities for upward mobility. Portes studied a
Cuban community in
Miami shows that Cuban
immigrants do fare better within the ethnic enclave.
But, there are also sources of class tension, as
Victor Nee pointed out (1987). He noted that ethnic enclaves benefit employers, but not workers. In Asian American enclaves, for example, immigrant
entrepreneurs provide their employees with particularly harsh and
exploitative work
environments.
information taken from notes on sociology lecture