Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Asian Americans in the selected
Boston enclaves are increasingly active in multiple modes of civic and
political participation. But there is quite a distance for them to
catch up with the rest of the population. Having more resources in the
form of financial and human capital would enhance Asian American
participation, as well as narrow the gap with the rest of the
population. The pattern of Asian American community organizing varies
with the needs of the individual enclaves. The more resourceful
enclaves focus on cultural and spiritual enrichment alone,
but they may provide significant leadership to other communities with
fewer resources. The less resourceful enclaves balance the two with
providing social services and a voice to help the community participate
more fully in the economic and political affairs of the larger society.
The lack of resources in community organizing can be offset by
favorable public policies as in the case of Cambodian Americans in
Lowell and Lynn. The case of the city of Boston demonstrates that
active organizing at the collective community level may stimulate
various forms of individual Asian American civic and political
participation to a point far beyond the prediction based on the
financial and human resources in the enclave.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: There are many Albanian restaurant workers and more than a few restaurant owners, but almost no Albanian restaurants in New York. Unless you go to Arthur Avenue, a historically Italian small shopping street in the Bronx. Many of the stores that were owned by Italians and sold typically Italian products – like pizza or more generally Italian food – are now owned by ethnic Albanians. Although this has presumably taken place elsewhere in the city without being noticed, Arthur Avenue is a special space as it combines solid claims of being the “real” Italy in NYC with conspicuous displays of Albanian-ness. And yet dozens of webpages introducing it barely mention the Albanians. Looking at this space through the lenses of its street-level shopping space, this paper will focus on two main questions. The first will deal with the socio-historical circumstances of the concentration of shops and restaurants in the three busy blocks of Arthur Avenue. The second will throw light into the dynamics of ethnic succession in a shopping street where different immigrant groups own shops, work, shop, and gather in a significant way.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: I will consider the recent convergence between the profiling & cluster techniques used to define social identities in gang abatement injunctions and how such techniques are likewise used in the imagining and marketing of residential lifestyle enclaves. In both cases, such the sub-populations created by these techniques are deployed as proxy “tribes”, as ethno-racial groupings, in ways that are designed to survive equal protection charges. I will ague that the statistical mapping of such constructed identities onto spaces of exclusion/enclosure exemplifies how both governmental policing and social marketing increasingly participate in parallel regimes of governance. I will suggest that this convergence represents a characteristic form of emerging global market governance.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Does the concentration of recent Hispanic immigrants into occupational enclaves—jobs with large numbers of limited English speakers—restrict their wage growth? A critical view of the ethnic enclave hypothesis argues that it does: immigrants working in occupational enclaves may have less need to learn English and/or less on-the-job exposure to it, which may isolate them socially and linguistically and limit their subsequent economic mobility. On the other hand, occupational enclaves can be seen as an important stepping stone for upwardly mobile immigrants who can find work while they improve their English on the way up the economic ladder. Using longitudinal data from the 1996, 2001, and 2004 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), we test for the effect of occupational level English proficiency on wage growth. The results indicate that although occupational English level is associated with lower wages for Hispanic immigrants in the cross section, it is not associated with lower levels of wage growth. These findings demonstrate that occupational enclaves do not “trap” immigrant workers—at least on average. Instead, occupational enclaves may provide a path by which immigrants gain familiarity with the U.S. labor market.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Habermas (1998) identifies the public sphere as a network of communication, permitting deliberation and producing reasoned public opinion. This paper examines a network metaphor’s possibilities for the mediated public sphere. The author concludes that interactive digital media generally, and the internet specifically, are most effective for enabling a mediated, networked public sphere that supports deliberative democracy by allowing for enclave and shared spaces where multiple publics can engage in deliberation within and across public boundaries.