CHINATOWN by Min Zhou, Alejandro Portes (Foreword) ( 9780877229346 )

Item Details

Title:

CHINATOWN
THE SOCIOECONOMIC POTENTIAL OF AN URBAN ENCLAVE

By:

Format:

Hardback

List price:	£62.00
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ISBN 10:

0877229341

ISBN 13:

9780877229346

Publisher:

TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS,U.S.

Pub. date:

1 May, 1992

Series:

Conflicts in Urban & Regional Development

Pages:

316

Description:

Examines how an ethnic enclave works to direct its members into American society, while at the same time shielding them from it. Focusing specifically on New York's Chinatown, this work offers a modern treatment of the enclave as a socioeconomic system, distinct form, but intrinsically linked with, the larger society.

Synopsis:

Min Zhou examines how an ethnic enclave works to direct its members into American society, while at the same time shielding them from it. Focusing specifically on New York's Chinatown, a community established more than a century ago, Zhou offers a thorough and modern treatment of the enclave as a socioeconomic system, distinct form, but intrinsically linked with, the larger society. Zhou's central theme is that Chinatown does not keep immigrant Chinese from assimilating into mainstream society, but instead provides an alternative means of incorporation into society that does not conflict with cultural distinctiveness. Concentrating on the past two decades, Zhou maintains that community networks and social capital are important resources for reaching socioeconomic goals and social positions in the United States; in Chinatown, ethnic employers use family ties and ethnic resources to advance socially. Relying on her family's networks in New York's Chinatown and her fluency in both Cantonese and Mandarin, the author, who was born in the People's Republic of China, makes extensive use of personal interviews to present a rich picture of the daily work life in the community.She demonstrates that for many immigrants, low-paid menial jobs provide by the enclave are expected as a part of the time-honored path to upward social mobility of the family. Min Zhou is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

Publication:

Imprint:

Temple University Press,U.S.

Returns:

Non-returnable

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