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God in Chinatown RELIGION, RACE, AND ETHNICITY God in Chinatown General Editor: Peter J. Paris Religion and Survival in New York's Public Religion and Urban Transformation: Faith in the City Evolving Immigrant Community Edited by Lowell W. Livezey Down by the Riverside: Readings in African American Religion Edited by Larry G. Murphy New York Glory: Kenneth ]. Guest Religions in the City Edited by Tony Carnes and Anna Karpathakis Religion and the Creation of Race and Ethnicity: An Introduction Edited by Craig R. Prentiss God in Chinatown: Religion and Survival in New York's Evolving Immigrant Community Kenneth J. Guest 111 New York University Press NEW YORK AND LONDON NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS For Thomas Luke New York and London www.nyupress.org © 2003 by New York University All rights reserved All photographs in the book, including the cover photos, have been taken by the author. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Guest, Kenneth J. God in Chinatown : religion and survival in New York's evolving immigrant community I Kenneth J. Guest. p. em.- (Religion, race, and ethnicity) Includes bibliographical references (p. 209) and index. ISBN 0-8147-3153-8 (cloth) - ISBN 0-8147-3154-6 (paper) 1. Immigrants-Religious life-New York (State)-New York. 2. Chinese Americans-New York (State )-New York-Religious life. 3. Chinatown (New York, N.Y.) I. Title. II. Series. BL2527.N7G84 2003 200'.89'95107471-dc21 2003000761 New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Chinatown and the Fuzhounese 37 36 Chinatown and the Fuzhounese have been quite successful, it also includes many individuals who are ex­ tremely desperate financially and emotionally. These marginalized individ­ Analyzing Ethnic Stratificatio,;{t: uals are central to making the Chinatown ethnic enclave function, but they The Ethnic Enclave Model exist on the edge of survival. For behind the steamy garment-shop windows and bustling restaurants lies the stark reality of impoverishment and ex­ In recent years scholars have formulated a number of frameworks for un­ ploitation. These immigrants have come to America in search of economic derstanding inequality among various immigrant groups and the implica­ stability for themselves and their families, but what many have found is gru­ tions of this inequality for the economic formations in major cities and eling labor and an uncertain future. The remainder of this chapter will ex­ contemporary processes of immigrant incorporation. Of particular theo­ amine the differences among the Fuzhounese reflected in the life histories retical importance to this study of Fuzhounese immigrants in New York's within a broader pattern of stratification found in Chinatown and among Chinatown is the groundbreaking work done by Partes and Bach (1985) Chinese immigrants as a whole. and later Partes and Stepick ( 1993) on the development of an ethnic enclave Just as Fuzhounese immigrants comprise a variety of waves, so too does ,among Cubans in Miami, which they see as an emerging model for immi­ the larger Chinatown community, with immigrants from Hong Kong, Tai­ grant incorporation in today's global cities. wan, south Asia, and many parts of mainland China. And Chinatown's strat­ In Latin Journey (1985) Partes and Bach record a case study of a new eth­ ification exists not only within these waves but between them. Kwong ( 1996 nic formation in the Cuban community in Miami, a formation they call an [ 1987]) suggests the terms "Uptown Chinese" and "Downtown Chinese" to "ethnic enclave:' The history of Miami since the 1950s is a history of suc­ describe the Chinese community's internal differentiation along class lines. cessive waves of immigration and the resulting impact on Miami politics, Uptown Chinese immigrate to the United States with skills needed by the culture, and economics. The 1959 Cuban Revolution brought entire groups U.S. economy. They may be students, business owners, or professionals. of privileged Cubans to Miami, fleeing the collectivization and nationaliza­ With these skills they are better able to integrate into U.S. society and tend tion underway in Castro's Cuba. A later wave of poorer refugees arrived not to live in Chinatowns, though they may have businesses there. Down­ from Cuba in the 1980 Mariel boatlift (Partes and Stepick 1993; Card 1990). town Chinese usually immigrate to the United States with limited financial Partes and Bach argue that the success of Miami's Cuban immigrants de­ and social capital. They comprise the working class, employed in restaurants rives from the establishment of an ethnic enclave in which they utilize net­ and garment shops. They live in urban Chinese settlements, like Chinatown, works of ethnic solidarity to mobilize needed cultural or social capital. Ac­ speak limited English, and, in the case of many Fuzhounese, may not have cording to their definition, the enclave consists of legal status, leaving them isolated from the mainstream economy and soci­ ety and highly vulnerable to economic exploitation. immigrant groups which concentrate in a distinct spatial location and or­ Stratification is an issue for all immigrant groups in America, not only ganize a variety of enterprises serving their ow~ ethnic market and/or the the Chinese. Legal immigrants to the United States include professionals, general population. Their basic characteristic is that a significant propor­ entrepreneurs, laborers, refugees, and asylum seekers. And in recent years tion of the immigrant work force works in enterprises owned by other im­ large numbers of undocumented workers have arrived, not only from migrants. (1981: 291) China, but also from Mexico, Russia, Central America, the Caribbean, east­ ern Europe, and even Ireland. Labor migrants, legal and undocumented, in In further developing the concept in Latin Journey, Partes and Bach argue search of menial and largely low paying jobs, have come to represent the that the two most essential and influential characteristics of enclaves are majority of immigrants to the United States (Partes and Rumbaut 1996). The differences in legal status and in social and financial capital available to ( 1) the presence of immigrants with sufficient capital, either brought these immigrants mean that immigrant communities with common na­ from abroad or accumulated in the United States, to create new opportu­ tional origins are not monolithic but, like the Chinese, are often distin­ nities for economic growth, and (2) an extensive division of labor. (1985: guished by significant internal stratification. 203) 38 Chinatown and the Fuzhounese Chinatown and the Fuzhounese 39 Partes and Bach suggest that this formulation usually occurs through work hard in order to have the opportunity to learn the trade themselves two successive waves of immigration of the same group. First, an entrepre­ and advance within the firm as foremen and supervisors. Eventually they neurial class is successfully transplanted from home to a receiving country. hope to utilize ethnic connections within the enclave to open up their own This class grows. Its economic activities expand and diversify. When the sec­ business and become self-employed. In this narrative, Cuban immigrants ond wave of immigrants arrives, the entrepreneurial class can offer them can move from the status of humble immigrants without skills and without opportunities virtually unavailable to immigrants entering other labor­ capital to achieve self-employment and ownership inside the enclave and market sectors. The enclave's economic structure, they argue, enables im­ accomplish this within one generation. If true, this is indeed a new trajec­ migrants to achieve upward social mobility. Using culturally based social tory and suggests a framework for reconceptualizing notions of class, mo­ networks, language, common history, and traditions, immigrants are able bility, and assimilation within immigrant communities. to find better-paying jobs, more promotion opportunity, and greater ability to use education and skills in the ethnic enclave than they are in the "dead­ end jobs" of the secondary labor market of the dominant economic struc­ Applications of the Ethnic Enclave Model tures. Indeed, despite low wages in the enclave, workers stay in subordinate The concept of the ethnic enclave is hard to generalize, as even Partes and jobs in order to take advantage of"paths of mobility unavailable on the out­ Bach admit (1985: 38). In describing the Cuban ethnic enclave, they lay out side" (Partes and Bach 1985: 204). In Partes and Bach's scenario, as immi­ several defining characteristics. The ethnic enclave is not an ethnic neigh­ grant firms expand, so do openings for coethnics at the supervisory and borhood. It is primarily focused on ethnic economic activity. The enclave managerial level as well as opportunities for ownership and self-employ­ has an entrepreneurial class possessing the capital necessary for the estab­ ment. In this model, the prosperity of the community is built on close-knit lishment of ethnic businesses. And the enclave has a diversity of employ­ family and kinship networks, where both enclave entrepreneurs and work­ ment arising from the growth of these businesses, which in turn offers op­ ers are bound by and benefit from ethnic solidarity-mutual obligations, portunities for upward mobility both to supervisory and management po­ trust, and loyalty-which constitutes a form of social capital absent beyond sitions and even to ownership and self-employment. the enclave boundaries. Partes and Bach portray the Cuban enclave as a fa­ These are very unique conditions. First, immigrants with professional vorable alternative to the secondary labor market for new immigrants. and entrepreneurial skills, especially those with individual capital, have some degree of mobility in the mainstream American economy. They are often not willing to be stranded in an immigrant enclave to work and per­ A New Immigrant Narrative haps live alongside the poor and unskilled.
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