Book Review: Lopez-Garza & Diaz, Asian and Latino Immigrants

Marta Lopez-Garza and David R. Diaz, eds.
Asian and Latino Immigrants in a Restructuring Economy: The Metamorphosis of Southern California
Stanford: Stanford University Press. 467 pages.
$US 24.95 paper (0-8047-3632-6), $US 65.00 cloth (0-8047-3630-8)

With 18 chapters and 21 authors, this lengthy volume fills an important niche on the settlement of immigrant groups by focusing on Los Angeles County and Southern California as an ecological region. The book takes the rapid increase of immigration into Los Angeles county from Mexico and Central America and from the Asian Pacific as its starting point. It does not aim to describe the ecology or demographics of the area. (For a writer who documents this “fourth wave” of concentrated and networked migration, see William A.V. Clark, The California Caldron: Immigration and the Fortunes of Local Communities. New York and London. The Guilford Press:1999). Asian and Latino Immigrants is a unique volume that explores how these two bodies of migrants affect the region’s political economy and social fabric. It is issue oriented. Its six sections cover “Women in the Global Economy;” “Macroeconomics;” “the Informal Economy in Southern California;” “Changing Political and Social Terrain” (the longest, with six chapters); “Ethnicity, Race and Racism,” “Social Policy.” Taken together, they provide a nuanced, detailed and politically informed volume whose strength lies in analysis embedded in a context.

The underlying argument of the volume is that these two waves of migrants are central to the low waged labor of the region and the polarization of the economy as it was transformed into a skill intensive aerospace-based economy. Authors note the poverty of most of this migrant populace, and characterize their labor force characteristics. Going past describing the demographics of their poverty with socioeconomic indices, authors (e.g. Hum), apply the theoretical issue of economic enclaves to data. Others (Pastor) distinguish the body of migrants by class, origin, and time of arrival, revealing major differences in economic roles and life options. Recent migrants from Central America fare the worst, but there is an expectation that intervention will be needed for them to undergo an economic transformation which is not automatic. This suggestion is supported by nuanced ethnographic chapters on actual economic activities within and outside the enclaves. These develop the theme that since the formal economy cannot handle these migrants without exploiting them, migrants develop informal economies. These underwrite the formal living standard of the poor by providing indigenous food and clothing for factory and construction workers (Chinchilla and Hamilton; Weber; Lopes-Garca). As well, they provide low cost services to the mainstream (Rosales’ study on domestic workers). Vendors, domestic workers, and other small business people are not protected by, and indeed are attacked by, local political structures.

Essays further describe how culture is a living fabric, and takes ongoing shape, as the religion and ethnic identities undergo change (Kurien; Saito; Ngin and Torres). That migrants subtly affect the politics of the area is one of the volume’s novel contributions, which refers not only to local Anglo Saxons and formal and informal political groups, (such as LA councilmen, LAPD), and also previous migrant groups. Political alignments are described effectively, from case studies of movements. As engaged scholars, many authors were participants in these activities. From these stances, they are able to bring lived experiences, and go beyond second hand accounts, or memoirs of the press or specific interest groups. An example is Weber’s balanced yet exciting study of how the LA community sharply reacted to the underemployed who took up street vending, and the efforts of different interest groups to represent or contain street vendors.

Thematically choosing Asian and Latino groups comes from an effort to understand how these waged migrants’ economic position reflects restructuring in Southern California, and how they together shape an emerging social fabric. In some way, however, it is hard to analyze these twin ethnic groups together. Several authors bravely attempt to describe the interrelationship of the ethnic groups. The chapters on their economic stratification show parallel differences, but not interrelationships. The political economic studies on activist and social movements more fully describe these relationships. Two chapters in part V grapple with interrelationships, but even here these are parallels (such as attitudes about others; theories about identity formation) more than actual intergroup encounters. That the book is uneven in its interrelating of these groups is not a shortcoming and challenges the reader to think about such relationships. One is gratified that the attempt has been made. We would be interested in applying these concepts and methods to inter-group relations in other regions, as in Toronto or other large Canadian cities. Waves of Asian and other immigrants of color and the nature of settlement in Canada may fit well these study findings only with some adjustment. Whether it is because new migrants to Toronto more closely fit the skilled immigrant category or because of the less concentrated origins (there is nothing resembling Mexico or even Central America on the Canadian border), or particular settlement patterns, is worthy of further study.

Rather than a hodgepodge of original research topics, put together by happenstance, this volume explores one niche, using original studies, and is thus able to build up a picture of jostling settlements and their interrelationship with earlier settlements (locals). More than that, it also creates an approach from which other researchers could benefit by following up the various sociological themes of the niche.

Janet W. Salaff
Department of Sociology
University of Toronto
salaff@chass.utoronto.ca

Janet Salaff is currently is doing qualitative research on the job search for new skilled immigrants from the PRC to Toronto, funded by a SSHRC grant.



		Canadian Journal of Sociology Online March - April 2002 Marta Lopez-Garza and David R. Diaz, eds. Asian and Latino Immigrants in a Restructuring Economy: The Metamorphosis of Southern California Stanford: Stanford University Press. 467 pages. $US 24.95 paper (0-8047-3632-6), $US 65.00 cloth (0-8047-3630-8) With 18 chapters and 21 authors, this lengthy volume fills an important niche on the settlement of immigrant groups by focusing on Los Angeles County and Southern California as an ecological region. The book takes the rapid increase of immigration into Los Angeles county from Mexico and Central America and from the Asian Pacific as its starting point. It does not aim to describe the ecology or demographics of the area. (For a writer who documents this “fourth wave” of concentrated and networked migration, see William A.V. Clark, The California Caldron: Immigration and the Fortunes of Local Communities. New York and London. The Guilford Press:1999). Asian and Latino Immigrants is a unique volume that explores how these two bodies of migrants affect the region’s political economy and social fabric. It is issue oriented. Its six sections cover “Women in the Global Economy;” “Macroeconomics;” “the Informal Economy in Southern California;” “Changing Political and Social Terrain” (the longest, with six chapters); “Ethnicity, Race and Racism,” “Social Policy.” Taken together, they provide a nuanced, detailed and politically informed volume whose strength lies in analysis embedded in a context. The underlying argument of the volume is that these two waves of migrants are central to the low waged labor of the region and the polarization of the economy as it was transformed into a skill intensive aerospace-based economy. Authors note the poverty of most of this migrant populace, and characterize their labor force characteristics. Going past describing the demographics of their poverty with socioeconomic indices, authors (e.g. Hum), apply the theoretical issue of economic enclaves to data. Others (Pastor) distinguish the body of migrants by class, origin, and time of arrival, revealing major differences in economic roles and life options. Recent migrants from Central America fare the worst, but there is an expectation that intervention will be needed for them to undergo an economic transformation which is not automatic. This suggestion is supported by nuanced ethnographic chapters on actual economic activities within and outside the enclaves. These develop the theme that since the formal economy cannot handle these migrants without exploiting them, migrants develop informal economies. These underwrite the formal living standard of the poor by providing indigenous food and clothing for factory and construction workers (Chinchilla and Hamilton; Weber; Lopes-Garca). As well, they provide low cost services to the mainstream (Rosales’ study on domestic workers). Vendors, domestic workers, and other small business people are not protected by, and indeed are attacked by, local political structures. Essays further describe how culture is a living fabric, and takes ongoing shape, as the religion and ethnic identities undergo change (Kurien; Saito; Ngin and Torres). That migrants subtly affect the politics of the area is one of the volume’s novel contributions, which refers not only to local Anglo Saxons and formal and informal political groups, (such as LA councilmen, LAPD), and also previous migrant groups. Political alignments are described effectively, from case studies of movements. As engaged scholars, many authors were participants in these activities. From these stances, they are able to bring lived experiences, and go beyond second hand accounts, or memoirs of the press or specific interest groups. An example is Weber’s balanced yet exciting study of how the LA community sharply reacted to the underemployed who took up street vending, and the efforts of different interest groups to represent or contain street vendors. Thematically choosing Asian and Latino groups comes from an effort to understand how these waged migrants’ economic position reflects restructuring in Southern California, and how they together shape an emerging social fabric. In some way, however, it is hard to analyze these twin ethnic groups together. Several authors bravely attempt to describe the interrelationship of the ethnic groups. The chapters on their economic stratification show parallel differences, but not interrelationships. The political economic studies on activist and social movements more fully describe these relationships. Two chapters in part V grapple with interrelationships, but even here these are parallels (such as attitudes about others; theories about identity formation) more than actual intergroup encounters. That the book is uneven in its interrelating of these groups is not a shortcoming and challenges the reader to think about such relationships. One is gratified that the attempt has been made. We would be interested in applying these concepts and methods to inter-group relations in other regions, as in Toronto or other large Canadian cities. Waves of Asian and other immigrants of color and the nature of settlement in Canada may fit well these study findings only with some adjustment. Whether it is because new migrants to Toronto more closely fit the skilled immigrant category or because of the less concentrated origins (there is nothing resembling Mexico or even Central America on the Canadian border), or particular settlement patterns, is worthy of further study. Rather than a hodgepodge of original research topics, put together by happenstance, this volume explores one niche, using original studies, and is thus able to build up a picture of jostling settlements and their interrelationship with earlier settlements (locals). More than that, it also creates an approach from which other researchers could benefit by following up the various sociological themes of the niche. Janet W. Salaff Department of Sociology University of Toronto salaff@chass.utoronto.ca Janet Salaff is currently is doing qualitative research on the job search for new skilled immigrants from the PRC to Toronto, funded by a SSHRC grant. http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/cjscopy/reviews/asian.html April 2002 © CJS Online