Internal ethnicity in the ethnic economy |
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| Authors: | Ivan Light Georges Sabagh Mehdi Bozorgmehr Claudia Der‐Martirosian |
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| Institution: | 1. Professor in the Department of Sociology , University of California , 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, 90024–1551, USA;2. Professor in the Department of Sociology and Director of the Center for Near Eastern Studies , University of California , Los Angeles;3. Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and a Post‐Doctoral Fellow in the Institute for Social Science Research , University of California , Los Angeles;4. Doctoral student in the Department of Sociology , University of California , Los Angeles |
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| Abstract: | Internal ethnicity refers to ethnic subgroups within an immigrant group. An ‘ethnic economy’ includes the self‐employed and their co‐ethnic workers. Although most research treats the boundaries of ‘ethnic economy’ and its variant, the ‘ethnic enclave economy’, as though they were coterminous with those of national‐origin immigrant groups, this assumption is unreliable. Ethnic boundaries need not coincide with those of nationality origin when internal ethnicity exists. To test this hypothesis, we utilize survey data collected from a sample of Iranians in Los Angeles. Because this national‐origin immigrant group contains four ethno‐religious subgroups (Armenians, Bahais, Jews and Muslims), the Iranians in Los Angeles operated four distinctive ethnic economies, not one. Each ethno‐religious subgroup had its own ethnic economy, and these separate economies were only weakly tied to an encompassing Iranian ethnic economy. |
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