Ethnic Enclaves

In Guest’s “God in Chinatown”, Portes and Bach describe the function of ethnic enclaves as a method to “utilize networks of ethnic solidarity to mobilize needed cultural or social capital”, and the way that ethnic enclaves are capable of generating cultural or social capital is a rich, entrepreneurial immigrant class providing economic opportunities to a poorer and less-skilled immigrant labor force. Creating this ecosystem within a native society provides economic and social security and opportunity for an immigrant labor force with the hope that a culturally based market, network, language, history, and traditions grant them upward mobility. These markets are also fairly secure because as Waldinger explains in “Immigrant Enterprise”, large retail stores are unable to attend to the ever-changing demands of an ethnic group, and in a city where there are hundreds of ethnic groups economies of scales do not play in their favor. Small business can handle and address the ever-changing demands and instability of an immigrant market. That is why the government should feel the need to protect ethnic enclaves, regardless of aesthetics, in Willets Point, Queens. These enclaves give immigrants the ability to rise up the social and economic ladder without fully assimilating. Some may argue that if newer high-rises, hotels, and malls will increase the profitability of that area, but helping immigrants rise up the social and economic ladder gives the next and more assimilated generation the opportunity to attend better schools and get a better education. This education will generally translate to higher-skilled and higher-paid jobs. As an ethnic enclave experiences an influx of money, their economy grows and helps the city and state.

Ethnic enclaves are crucial to the success of an immigrant group, but without close monitoring, it can be more destructive than constructive. New immigrants tend not to know how the American labor system works and this creates economic problems within the enclave. Members of the enclave think that people with the same culture, language and heritage would not hurt them in any way, especially since they are all immigrants in a foreign land. But the reality is very different. Employees tend to make lower than legal amounts of money, have to work longer than legal amounts of time and are not fairly compensated for their work through benefits. The easy solution would be to leave that business, but the enclave grants a level of protection, especially for low-skilled workers. In the open-market, finding a job as a low-skilled worker is very difficult. So immigrants tend to be the captives of their own sanctuary. This is where the government should intervene and help these communities. More effort should be placed on finding businesses that violate standard working conditions and protect the rights of those who don’t even know they have them or are too scared to use them.