Ethnic Enclave - History

History

Historically, the formation of ethnic enclaves is the result of a variety of socioeconomic factors that draw immigrants to similar spaces in the receiving country. The lack of access to economic capital and of knowledge regarding residential neighborhoods can constrain newly arrived immigrants to regions of affordable housing. Social dynamics such as prejudice and racism may concentrate co-ethnics into regions displaying ethnic similarity. Housing discrimination may also prevent ethnic minorities from settling into a particular residential area outside the enclave. When discussing the ethnic enclave as defined by a spatial cluster of businesses, success and growth can be largely predicted by three factors. These factors include 1) the size and population of the enclave 2) the level of entrepreneurial skills of those in the enclave and 3) the availability of capital resources to the enclave. Successful enclaves can reach a point where they become self-sufficient, or “institutionally complete” through the supply of new immigrants and demand of goods offered in the market. They only reach this point after first supplying for the needs of co-ethnics and then expanding to meet needs of those in the larger market of the host society.

The term “ethnic enclave” arose in response to a publication by Alejandro Portes and Kenneth Wilson in 1980. Portes and Wilson identified a third labor market in which Cuban immigrants in Miami took part. Instead of entering the secondary labor market of the host society, Portes and Wilson discovered that new immigrants tended to become employed by co-ethnics running immigrant-owned firms. The collection of small immigrant enterprises providing employment to new immigrants was defined as the enclave economy.