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Title: Why Do Immigrant Communities Tend to Work in Certain Industries?

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2015

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Abstract: This story reflects the broad tendency among immigrant populations to concentrate around specific industries and entrepreneurship. This is not a new phenomenon; historical examples of ethnic specialisation range from the Jews in Medieval Europe to the Japanese in South America. Fairlie (2008) shows that immigrants are much more likely to be self-employed entrepreneurs than natives. Kuznets (1960) observed that all minorities are characterised, at a given time, by an occupational structure distinctly narrower than that of the total population and the majority. This is demonstrably true in the US; for example, our data (further described below) show that Eritrean immigrants are 61 times more likely to be taxicab drivers than the average American. As in Yuns story, this is frequently the result of social interactions within the group.

Url: http://latino-star.com/why-do-immigrant-communities-tend-to-work-in-certain-industries/

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Authors: Kerr, William; Mandorff, Martin

Publisher: Latino Star

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Migration and Immigration, Race and Ethnicity

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