Ethnic succession theory

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Ethnic succession theory is a theory in sociology stating that ethnic and racial groups will be the targets of neighborhood segregation only until they achieve economic parity. This group will then move on and be replaced by a new ethnic group in a similar situation. This pattern will continue, creating a succession of groups moving through the neighborhood over time[1].

Contents

[edit] Explanations

[edit] Immigration and Environment

Ethnic groups settle in new neighborhoods after their immigration to a new country. They are often viewed by the dominant racial or cultural group as undesirable neighbors because of prejudice against a new culture infiltrating a neighborhood. The areas in which these ethnic groups settle are often slum neighborhoods that are very run down, but quite affordable. Over time, the incoming group settles and finds work, and is able to establish itself economically, thus allowing the people comprising that group to shake off the low status tag. Meanwhile, the original group has moved out of the neighborhood to avoid the newcomers, leaving the neighborhood with new demographics.[2].

The situation of Mexican immigrant groups in the United States is a good example of this phenomenon. Upon entering the country, the immigrants often settle in run down areas of larger cities, where the cost of living is affordable. Working class whites in the area the have to compete for jobs with the new immigrants, making them undesirable neighbors, since these immigrants will often do the same work as the whites for less money. Looking to the past, similar patterns have emerged with many European immigrant groups.

[edit] Segregation

Upon arrival, segregation plays a major part in the limitations on socioeconomic ascension of an ethnic group. Immigrants are confined to the small run down areas which they can afford, and are automatically viewed as undesirable neighbors as a result of the culture with the privilege and power not wanting these new people as neighbors. Even after economic parity is reached, high income earners of a traditional low status group are not welcomed with open arms. There is more integration than at the low income end, but stigmas still exist that blanket the entire ethnic group. Often suburbs of a city will each be dominated by a different ethnic group that has achieved parity and moved on as a whole to settle on their own.

In some cases social class pays into the equation as much as race. Mary Pattillo-McCoy provides an example of such a phenomenon in the results from her studies of South Chicago in the 1990's. Although middle class blacks do seem to pick up and move out of their original neighborhoods, they still remain in predominantly black neighborhoods, not venturing too far from their low class neighborhood, if in fact the low class neighborhood is not encompassed by the middle class. Those middle class blacks who are yet unemployed will still be vulnerable to segregation by others like whites finding them "undesirable", and also vulnerable to the high crime, poverty and poor education that is a result of their not moving on to a neighborhood populated by people of a similar class and instead, have remained in lower-class neighborhoods so as to stay in neighborhoods with people of the same race.[3].

[edit] Historical examples

[edit] White Flight

Main article: White Flight

In the United States, a trend has taken place since World War II where working middle class white people moved away from the neighborhood they lived in because of people from different ethnic groups were moving in. When doing so, white Americans sold their homes for less then what they were worth because they associated different ethnic groups with lower income neighborhoods. This phenomenon peaked in the 1950’s[4]. Looking at suburbs today, it can be seen that successful ethnic groups and whites are found there. Ethnic groups have filled in the void left by the whites, taking the low cost urban housing.

[edit] Black Power

Main article: Black Power

Black power is a political movement among people of African descent throughout the world, however it is often mainly associated with African Americans in the United States. It was most popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The movement emphasized racial pride and the creation of black political and cultural institutions to promote communal black interests, advance black values, and secure black independence. The Movement for Black Power Came during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.

Martin Luther King Jr. believed that Black Power was “essentially an emotional concept” that meant “different things to different people,” but he worried that the slogan carried “connotations of violence and separatism”.

[edit] Affected U.S. Cities

[edit] Los Angeles

During the early 90s Hispanic immigrants rapidly moved into Los Angeles, which had previously been mostly African American. Los Angeles was 28% hispanic, 48% white, and 17% black in 1980. In 1990 it was 40% hispanic, 37% white, and 13% black. [5] This extremely rapid change in racial dynamics resulted in much hate and violence. A more specific example is Watts, Los Angeles. Hispanic and Mexican immigrants moved into the city because the railroad had arrived and spurred economic development. As this occurred, Blacks moved in and this area became predominatly black. As the blacks moved in, whites moved to new suburbs outside of the city.

[edit] St. Louis and Chicago

In St. Louis and Chicago during the early 1900s, a similar problem occurred when many African Americans moved to these big cities from the South. The rapid ethnic succession in these areas caused violence between the races.[6]

[edit] Current Research

[edit] Significance in Immigrant Enterprises

The toleration of ethnic succession in the immigrant-dominated garment industry has been prevalent since the turn of the 20th century. Ethnicity in the workforce is an important derterminant in industries and their workers. Margaret Chin's book, Sewing Women, sheds new light with the how gender composes the garment industry. Also, Chin stresses the effect of unionization on the group of workers. Chin also demonstrates with much detail how ethinicity offers economic opportunities for immigrants while limiting their options for the rising of social mobility. The garment industry is one that has always been immigrant dominated, specifically in New York City. Be it from Jewish and Chinese immigrants in the 1900's, or the surging Hispanic population today, the industry has been dominated by low skill, cheap labor, and poor working conditions, which are typical of thenjobs immigrants look to begin with. Today, in ethnic enclaves such as Chinatown there are no mobility in these jobs, as family and friends are recruited with no real chance at a decent wage. Koreans set up shops all over and tend to hire Hispanics, who are not bound to their ethnicity at work. This allows for Hispanics to move through the job market and work for higher wages, but at the same time it appears that the ability to move past the role of a worker and up to a supervisor type role is stifled. However, groups not confined to an enclave are more likely to succeed and achieve economic parity and thus ethnic succession continues[7].

[edit] New York City Planning

Ronald J.O. Flores along with A.P. Lobo and J.J. Salvo of the New York City Department of Planning have been studying the makeup of neighborhoods in New York. Since about 1970, Hispanics have been the dominant groups that have been flowing through the inner city neighborhoods of New York City, succeeding whites. Puerto Ricans and Dominicans settled in their own ethnic neighborhoods, while South American immigrants seemed to immediately integrate, perhaps coming in with a better chance to succeed. In the 21st Century, New York is seeing Hispanics remain as the dominant groups, but a multitude of other Hispanic groups have begun to succeed the Puerto Ricans and Dominicans. This has a profound effect on the political, economic, and social implications of the city, giving the Department of Planning a multitude of information about the makeup of their constituents[8]. Other cities are seeing similar patterns, with Mexicans in Los Angeles and Cubans in Miami.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Stark 2007, p.551
  2. ^ Stark 2007, p.551-53
  3. ^ Pattillo-McCoy 1999
  4. ^ http://www.jstor.org/view/00031224/di974329/97p0615f/0
  5. ^ http://www.asamst.ucsb.edu/courses/readingsAAS2/13_bergesen.pdf
  6. ^ http://www.jstor.org/view/000312#E39C0
  7. ^ EBSCO Publishing Service Selection Page
  8. ^ The Impact of Hispanic Growth on the Racial/Ethnic Composition of New York City Neighborhoods - Lobo et al. 37 (5): 703 - Urban Affairs Review

[edit] Citations

  • Pattillo-McCoy, Mary (1999), "Black Picket Fences : Privilege and Peril Among the Black Middle Class", University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0226649290.
  • Stark, Rodney (2007), "Sociology", 10th edition, Thompson Wadsworth. ISBN 978-0495093442.
  • Zhou, Min (2006), "The Significance of Ethnicity in Immigrant Enterprises" Vol.21, No. 3 Sociological Forum