title: Ethnic enclaves and the earnings of immigrants.
abstract: A large literature in sociology concerns the implications of immigrants' participation in ethnic enclaves for their economic and social well-being. The "enclave thesis" speculates that immigrants benefit from working in ethnic enclaves. Previous research concerning the effects of enclave participation on immigrants' economic outcomes has come to mixed conclusions as to whether enclave effects are positive or negative. In this article, we seek to extend and improve upon past work by formulating testable hypotheses based on the enclave thesis and testing them with data from the 2003 New Immigrant Survey (NIS), employing both residence-based and workplace-based measures of the ethnic enclave. We compare the economic outcomes of immigrants working in ethnic enclaves with those of immigrants working in the mainstream economy. Our research yields minimal support for the enclave thesis. Our results further indicate that for some immigrant groups, ethnic enclave participation actually has a negative effect on economic outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Population Studies Center/Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, 426 Thompson St., P.O. Box 1248, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1248, USA. yuxie@isr.umich.edu
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gough
mesh_terms: D000069:Acculturation; D001213:Asian / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D017059:Models, Econometric; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D014481:United States