OUP - Abstract

Isolation and the Enclave: The Presence and Variety of Strong Ties Among Immigrants

Dissertation School: University of Washington

Pages: 219

Publication Date: May 2002

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Access Number: 10749

Abstract:
Immigrant enclaves used to be portrayed as poor and isolated but now are often seen as poor and close-knit. Using a networks framework to assess these portrayals of immigrant relations, this dissertation compares the number and composition of strong social ties of immigrants to those of the native born in Boston and Los Angeles. Immigrants are significantly less likely than the native-born to report strong ties outside their households. Poverty and low levels of education contribute to this lack of strong ties. Among those who have such ties, immigrants are more likely to have strong ties exclusively with neighbors. Furthermore, the strong ties of immigrant Hispanics and Asians are more ethnically, sexually and educationally homogeneous than the ties of their native counterparts. These findings suggest that immigrants may have fewer opportunities for societal ties than is commonly perceived. Place of residence also structures the homogeneity of social ties, among both immigrants and natives. People who live among co-ethnics are more likely to have co-ethnic ties than those outside an enclave. This latter finding offers an individual-level test of spatial-assimilation theory.

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