Geography
Ethnic Neighborhoods
Ethnic neighborhoods are residential areas where a particular ethnic or cultural group is the majority. These neighborhoods often feature distinct cultural institutions, businesses, and social networks that cater to the needs and preferences of the specific ethnic group. They can contribute to the preservation and celebration of cultural traditions, but may also face challenges related to segregation and economic disparities.
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- John W. Frazier, Eugene L. Tettey-Fio, Norah F. Henry, John W. Frazier, Eugene L. Tettey-Fio, Norah F. Henry(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Distribution Partners(Publisher)
In stark contrast to the newer outer, wealthy suburbs, large, old “inner cities” of metropolitan areas disproportionately contain areas of poor housing, persistent unemployment, low wages, and a declining tax base. American ghettos persist as landscapes of fear and despair that encompass horrendous conditions, despite a half-century of national growth and prosperity. Typically invisible to middle-America, these conditions became more apparent when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005. Hundreds of thousands of residents evacuated, but the very poor, predominantly Black inner-city residents who lacked resources and access to transportation were left behind to experience one of America’s most devastating natural disasters and its aftermath. The conditions and racial distribution of New Orleans is typical of many other American cities, including Detroit, Milwaukee, Chicago, Cleveland, Buffalo, Rochester, and others that experienced ghetto formation generations ago. America’s outer suburbs are the antithesis of such conditions, and represent the relatively new, prosperous and spreading American landscapes that reflected wealth.Spatial patterns of racial and ethnic distributions have become increasingly complex in recent decades due to the rapid influx of immigrants and other forces. As a result, the ubiquitous ethnic enclave economy has become but one of multiple geographic expressions of ethnic settlement structures in the U.S. The same is true of assimilation, which once had a singular explanation but now revolves around multiple factors creating multiple outcomes. When explaining enclaves and other geographic forms of settlement, social scientist perspectives are wide ranging, each with its supporters and critics. The perspectives range from emphasis on group unity to the importance of social and financial capital, and from the specialized functions of place and space to explanations associated with neoliberalism and the influence of the “new” economy in shaping contemporary human behaviors and the characteristics of modern landscapes.Zhou and Cho, for example, emphasized the non-economic influences of ethnic entrepreneurship, especially the link between the social environment created by entrepreneurship and the improved mobility and adaptive behaviors of the ethnic Chinese and Korean economies in Los Angeles (2010). Other research perspectives include concepts such as transnationalism, the tendency to be influenced by more than a single culture due to residence in multiple global locations. Transnational migrants are used to explain the transfer of cultural experiences and behaviors from one country to the other and often become expressed as geographic landscapes. An example is the case of Asian-Indian immigrants in the U.S. Chacko (2007) illustrated the impact of these Asian-Indian immigrants resettling in Indian communities wherein their new landscapes include gated communities that are an adaptation of American housing development. At the same time, recent Asian-Indian immigrants in Queens, New York, have created an ethnic economy and visible commercial landscapes, while also creating new housescapes that are reminiscent of Indian culture. Their American housescapes in Queens typically involve the use of new architectural facades, stainless steel railings, enclosed front yards, decorative animals and concrete in place of grass. These are associated with cultural preferences and habits associated with India.
eBook - ePub- Eric Fong, Kumiko Shibuya, Brent Berry(Authors)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Polity(Publisher)
Ethnic community is largely the result of voluntary segregation of an ethnic group, sometimes manifested with clear physical boundaries and sometimes without a common shared space. Co-ethnic members of the community maintain a high level of social closeness through shared activities, media, institutions, and reference points that reinforce ethnic identity. Ethnic communities are commonly found in many cities around the world, from the largest gateway cities to small-to-midsize destinations.Ethnic communities emerged following the settlement patterns of racial and ethnic groups. In late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century North America, most were first located in marginal areas near the rapidly industrializing central cities where housing was cheaper. Ethnic communities started relocating or developing anew in suburban areas as economic decentralization and suburbanization made it possible to live further away from central business districts. Today, since central business districts no longer represent the best housing option, ethnic communities are found all across metropolitan areas. The changing economic success and shifting profile of ethnic immigrants has also made middle-class suburban life more accessible. Proximity to ethnic communities throughout the metro area heightens the opportunities for shared ethnic experience and context in our daily lives.In this chapter, we have discussed the reasons why ethnic communities emerge and presented social, economic, and cultural explanations for this. The social explanation suggests the development of ethnic communities is an adaptive strategy that helps members integrate into the larger society gradually along with sympathetic co-ethnics who can help with the socialization process of immigration. Social capital among ethnic members is created and nurtured within ethnic communities through frequent contact and shared experiences. Ethnic communities that are sufficiently large have the added benefit of enabling an ecological structure that fosters more frequent contact and a critical mass of social capital. The economic explanation for the emergence of ethnic community suggests that they are logical social clusters that form to reflect the socioeconomic limitations, specifically affordability challenges, of the ethnic members. Ethnic communities reduce the traveling cost for ethnic members wishing to be involved in community activities and benefit ethnic businesses that wish to sell to them. Cultural explanations for ethnic communities emphasize the power of sentiments and place attachment. Recent studies show that ethnic communities are locations where common historical experiences and collective memory of the group can be retold and embraced to reinforce ethnic identity.
eBook - ePub- Mark Gottdiener, Randolph Hohle, Colby King(Authors)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
When immigrants move to another country that contains people from varied origins, such as the United States, subcultural differences may take on the dimensions of ethnic distinctions. These are almost wholly symbolic or cultural in nature. In particular, ascribed characteristics and inherited beliefs may be applied to socially constructing differences among individuals of different foreign heritage. What counts for the dynamics of ethnicity is the extent to which those symbolic differences clash with those of the dominant society or of other ethnic groups in a diverse society. Even the categories of ethnic identity themselves can shift and change over time, as illustrated by Smajda and Gerteis’s (2012) study of Italian ethnic boundaries in Boston. In their study of the city’s North End neighborhood, at the time populated largely by Italian immigrants, they found an evolving sense of what it meant to be Italian in that neighborhood among residents, business owners, and politicians. Rather than observing an Italian ethnic identity that was weakening over time as members of the ethnic group assimilated, they found that the particular Italian ethnic identity dominated the culture and space of this neighborhood, and was often placed in contrast to social class identities and political boundaries, rather than other ethnic identities. Thus, this study illustrates the contrarian view that immigrants to America seek to assimilate into its larger culture. Consequently, the idea that all immigrants throughout the US invariably assimilate, except for those that are actively anti-American, is called into question.Although it is common to speak of Ethnic Neighborhoods in American cities—and most of us are familiar with Chinatowns, Mexican neighborhoods, Greektowns, and the like—urban sociologists are more likely to talk about the ethnic enclave, a concept which refers to an urban space with a concentration of members of one ethnic group who live, work, and typically operate small businesses within that space. The ethnic enclave emphasizes the ways in which social networks among residents of the same ethnic background, defined by a shared language, religion, history, or other customs, shapes the social life of the neighborhood. Much of this research focuses on the paradox of the ethnic enclave: the positive effects that social networks can provide for new immigrants, and the negative effects of concentration and isolation within the enclave. On the one hand, the ethnic enclave can be a resource for community support, at least for those residents able to leverage their status in the enclave to better themselves economically and/or politically (Portes and Zhou, 1993; Sanders and Nee, 1987). On the other hand, enclaves reinforce boundaries between different groups, leading to their exclusion from local political matters, thereby reinforcing exclusion.
eBook - ePubSocial-Spatial Segregation
Concepts, Processes and Outcomes
- Lloyd, Christopher D., Shuttleworth, Ian G.(Authors)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Policy Press(Publisher)
SIXTEEN Exploring socioeconomic characteristics of ethnically divided neighbourhoods Kenneth N. French Introduction Large US cities are generally ethnically diverse and may have high levels of ethnic residential segregation (see Chapter Six, this volume, for context). What are the socioeconomic impacts for those living in these ethnically segregated neighbourhoods? Do separate living spaces equate to equal living spaces for all ethnic groups in a city? The goal of this chapter is to investigate the consequences of living in segregated neighbourhoods in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the second most segregated American city in 2000 (Glaeser et al, 2001, 8). The research will identify where ethnic groups live and analyse the social effects of these spatial distributions. In terms of social impacts, various socioeconomic variables (for example, income levels and public school reading scores) are analysed and compared to the ethnic residential patterns. Socioeconomic variables are statistically summarised for the most segregated African American, Hispanic and White neighbourhoods. The results of the chapter may help to determine if there is a connection between social inequality and spatial inequality in an American urban landscape. Impacts of ethnic residential segregation As Peach (1996) noted, there is ‘good’ and ‘bad’ segregation, where people may live in segregated areas that have formed for either positive or negative reasons. Ethnic residential segregation can be seen as ‘a process that victimizes some groups while liberating others’ (Kaplan and Woodhouse, 2004, p 583). Ethnic group members may feel ‘liberated’ by living and working in an ethnic neighbourhood where they do not face constant discrimination. Historically, many immigrants who came to America clustered into ethnic enclaves. This ‘good’ segregation of ethnic enclaves provided new arrivals, with ‘social support and a semblance of the old world now lost to them’ (Mayadas and Segal, 2000, p 208)
eBook - ePubDivercities
Understanding Super-Diversity in Deprived and Mixed Neighbourhoods
- Oosterlynck, Stijn, Verschraegen, Gert(Authors)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Policy Press(Publisher)
According to ethnic enclave theory, minority ethnic groups, regardless of their socioeconomic situation, are thought to settle in diverse areas because they prefer to live close to co-ethnics, who are often spatially concentrated in diverse neighbourhoods (Wilson and Portes, 1980). In this respect they prefer homogeneity rather than diversity. An advantage of living in a neighbourhood with co-ethnics is the presence of specialised facilities and amenities that meet ethno-cultural-specific needs (Logan et al, 2002). In addition, living in the presence of co-ethnics also offers entry points for work, particularly for minority ethnic groups in low socioeconomic positions (Zorlu and Mulder, 2007; Zukin et al, 2016; Saunders, 2010). Furthermore, according to ethnic enclave theory, living among co-ethnics can provide important personal support networks. These networks can further provide protection and security and can contribute to a sense of home (Saunders, 2010; Górny and Toruńczyk-Ruiz, 2014; Pemberton and Phillimore, 2016). However, living among co-ethnics can also cause negative residential experiences, for instance, in the case of too high levels of social control (Dekker and Bolt, 2005). An ethnically diverse neighbourhood could mitigate this, but not if ethnic communities live parallel lives (Forrest and Kearns, 2001; Camina and Wood, 2009). Nevertheless, a growing body of literature shows high levels of everyday social interaction across ethno-cultural differences in highly diverse neighbourhoods. Referred to as, for example, ‘everyday multiculturalism’, ‘corner-shop cosmopolitanism’, ‘conviviality’ and ‘light encounters’, these exchanges mostly take place between neighbours and other local acquaintances. Inter-ethno-cultural relationships mostly develop between more locally oriented residents in low socioeconomic positions, rather than middle- and upper-class residents (Fincher and Iveson, 2008; Valentine, 2008; Wise, 2009; Hall, 2012; van Eijk, 2012; Wessendorf, 2014).In sum, one might expect that the white middle classes who settled in diverse neighbourhoods when they were already diverse are attracted to urban diversity and appreciate this, whereas white long-term residents (who are mostly in lower socioeconomic positions, otherwise they would have moved) are more ambivalent about urban diversity because they settled in the neighbourhoods before they were so diverse. Minority ethnic groups might be mostly attracted to neighbourhoods where co-ethnics live, preferring ethnically homogeneous rather than diverse neighbourhoods.Research in highly diverse neighbourhoods in Rotterdam and Antwerp
The cities of Rotterdam and Antwerp are similar in many respects. The former has about 624,800 inhabitants, the latter 516,000, and both are their country’s second largest city. Both are also port cities and former industrial cities, and have relatively high levels of low-skilled workers, unemployment and poor households compared to other large cities in the Netherlands and Belgium. In both cities, urban policies have been implemented in an attempt to turn the tide by attracting more middle- and high-income groups by, for example, stimulating processes of neighbourhood gentrification (Loopmans, 2008; Doucet et al, 2011). Due to their histories as international trade centres, the cities have attracted migrants from all over the world. Migrants have come to work in the docks or, in the case of Antwerp, for instance, as diamond traders. They re-joined their families or formed new families. In 2015, almost half of the inhabitants of Rotterdam and Antwerp (49% and 46%, respectively) were born abroad or had at least one parent who was born abroad (Municipality of Antwerp, 2015; Statistics Rotterdam, 2016).
eBook - ePubMulticulturalism, Social Cohesion and Immigration
Shifting Conceptions in the UK
- Martin Bulmer, John Solomos, Martin Bulmer, John Solomos(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
Low levels of both diversity and contact are likely to be the prevailing norm in the majority of UK neighbourhoods, for which the median proportion of black and minority ethnic groups in 2001 was (depending on the areal unit employed) approximately 2.5%. In addition to the low levels of diversity in many UK neighbourhoods, the spatial distribution of ethnic groups within neighbourhoods is also likely to be important. Uslaner (2010, 2012) has argued that the predominant tendency in the existing literature to focus on measures of ethnic concentration and diversity has resulted in a failure to adequately acknowledge the effect of ethnic segregation within neighbourhoods (also see Rothwell 2012). An ethnically diverse area can be either highly integrated or highly segregated and it is in the latter rather than the former case that we should expect to find a negative effect on cohesion and trust. This is because segregated areas provide fewer opportunities for meaningful social contact between groups and tend to reinforce in-group identities and social networks (Rothwell 2012). For these reasons, it is perhaps unsurprising that studies based on the full national distribution of neighbourhoods and which use only ethnic diversity as the measure of ethnic composition have tended to find weak but negative associations with interpersonal trust and social cohesion (Taylor, Twigg, and Mohan 2010; Sturgis et al. 2011).It is because we can be certain that ethnic diversity is unusually high and, therefore, part of everyday life for its residents that we have chosen to focus our analysis on neighbourhoods in London – a city with a justifiable claim to be the most ethnically diverse, not just in the UK, but in the world. Additionally, the data to which we have access for this purpose enable us to distinguish between the level of ethnic diversity and the extent to which the spatial distribution of ethnic groups is segregated in a neighbourhood. To illustrate the extent to which the ethnic diversity of London neighbourhoods ‘stands apart’ from the rest of the country, Figure 1 shows small-area1
eBook - ePub- Graham Crow, Graham Allan(Authors)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
community. It was a town of essentially one complexion’ (1989, p. 58, emphasis in original). The newcomers were not absorbed into this community because ‘It takes two to assimilate: the newcomer and the town’ (1989, p.115). In practice, ethnic-minority groups which did not conform to ‘English ways and English standards’ found themselves effectively excluded, and the housing allocation system was particularly important in the creation of ‘ethnic villages’ whereby ‘ethnic minorities lived in isolation on their own “reservations” in the inner areas’ (1989, pp. 115, 110). Having said this, Sarre and his colleagues are keen to avoid the suggestion that the reproduction of such structures is automatic, and they note in particular the importance of the policy changes in the housing department now that it is beginning to confront more directly multi-racial issues. Periods during which housing markets were buoyant were also characterised by ethnic minority households moving into better housing in previously non-ethnic areas, although the reverse side of this process is that ‘Racial and ethnic status … remain important categories of differentiation and come to the fore when resources are scarce’ (1989, p. 296). In this context mention of the tendency for ethnic minorities to be located disproportionately amongst low-income households indicates their general economic vulnerability and serves as a reminder of the limitations within which policy-makers have to operate.The influence of housing on the creation and reproduction of ethnic segregation is reinforced by the workings of the labour market. Anwar has noted that ‘Most of the original ethnic minorities who came to Britain were economic migrants’, and that their concentration in certain locations reflected their being granted access to only ‘a limited range of occupations’ (1986, p. 13). It is also clear that processes comparable to those discussed above which produced segregation in the housing market can operate in the employment market as well, it being well documented that ‘the urban economy typically offers scope for “ethnic” economic organisation in particular niches’ (Wallman, 1979, p. 1; Okely, 1983). The existence of clusters of Asian workers in west midlands foundries has been explained by Brooks and Singh in terms of ‘recruitment networks and brokers’ (1979, p. 95) reminiscent of the sponsorship networks of chain migration, while Ward’s (1985) work suggests that ‘ethnic niche’ opportunities exist for shopkeepers and others to provide services within minority communities in areas of residential succession such as Bradford, Bolton and Rochdale. The reproduction of segregation may also be seen as an outcome of the labour market when considering the uneven distribution of unemployment, and in particular the high levels of joblessness among black youths (Brah, 1986; K. Roberts, 1984; Ullah, 1987).
