In her essay, Margaret Chin discusses how ethnically based social networks, Mexican, Ecuadorian, and Chinese specifically, operate within the garment industry in New York City. She notes that the immigrants have particularly strong social networks. People reach out to people of their ethnicity for help in finding jobs, and workers usually find jobs within their own industry. Chin talks about how within the garment industry, these newer workers are not seen as competitors who will eventually push out the current workers because they are more willing to wore at lower wages. In her example, sewing together pieces is an individualistic task that allows workers to push themselves to produce more than they are to outperform their neighbors. This fact is important because it makes workers more likely to bring new workers into the business if these new workers are not going to become replacements.
This social networking builds already strong ties within ethnic neighborhoods and may create pockets of ethnicities within certain industries. Because many immigrants already work in the garment industry, they will help other immigrants in that same ethnic group find jobs in the garment industry. As they work in the same places and do the same jobs, these workers become closer to one another. However, Chin points out that this may push people of other ethnicities out of the industry or bar them from entering the industry in the first place. Other immigrants may have difficulty finding the support necessary to thrive in garment-making or may even find it difficult to enter the business because they lack the connections. Though it is good for the Mexican, Ecuadorian, and Chinese immigrants that they are able to build a network that supports themselves and allows them to reach out to others, they may be doing so at the cost of other ethnic groups.
