Immigration and ethnic economies in giant cities

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4933467
AutoresIvan Light (0000-0001-9832-3008, University of California, Los Angeles, autor de correspondencia)
Año2004
Volumen56
Número181
Páginas385-398
Fecha de publicación2004-09-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaInternational Social Science Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0020-8701 • E-ISSN: 1468-2451
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.0020-8701.2004.00501.x
OpenAlexW2089292491
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas9
Referencias citadas21

Globalisation studies claimed that Third World immigrants flock to world cities because of changed income distributions. On this argument, the increasingly hourglass-shaped income structure of world cities, a product of global restructuring, creates self-renewing demand for skilled and unskilled workers in those very world cities. Critics have already shown that this argument neglects the intermediary role of migration networks, and that, when account is taken of these networks, a basis exists for explaining why migrations to world cities continue and even accelerate despite deteriorating economic conditions in the destinations. This paper addresses the role of ethnic economies in this perplexing process, arguing that ethnic economies buffer migrations from deteriorating economic conditions in the reception cities. This buffer expands effective demand for immigrant workers while guaranteeing pre-migrants still at home employment and housing in the destinations prior to their actual departure. Assuming continuing immigration, a given of globalisation, the buffer itself is finally saturated after a lag. When combined with loss of local political toleration, which accompanies increasing poverty among migrants, the buffer's economic saturation finally diverts the migration network to lesser cities of the urban hierarchy where the process of mainstream saturation - buffer expansion - buffer saturation - dispersal repeats. The durability of buffer economies in localities does not depend only on economic conditions. Local political toleration of buffer economies importantly affects the durability of the immigration buffer in any city. To this extent, immigration policy is in the hands of cities, not of states

Development economics · Economic growth · Economic mobility · Economics · Globalization · Immigration · Immigration policy · Market economy · Political economy · Political science · Poverty · Law · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis