Asian American Issues Relating to Labor, Economics, and Socioeconomic Status

In the late l9th and early 20th century, labor issues fanned the flames of anti-Asian sentiment, as they continue to do to this day. These essays explore the topics of immigration and work, ethnic economics and enclaves, the role of middlemen minorities, Southeast Asian refugee employment, and issues of class, hierarchy, immigrant recruitment, intra-community exploitation, and poverty in Asian American communities.

Franklin Ng is Professor of Anthropology at California State University, Fresno. He holds a B.A. degree from Johns Hopkins University, an A.M. degree from Harvard University, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago. The editor of The Asian AmericanEncyclopedia, he is also the co-editor of New Visions inAsian American Studies: Diversity, Community, Power, the author of Chinese Americans Struggle for Equality, and has written articles for anthologies and journals. He serves as the editor of the Journal of American-EastAsian Relations and is on the editorial board of the Amerasia Journal.

Friday, Chris. Asian American Labor and Historical Interpretation. Labor History 35 (1994)* Caces, Fe. Immigrant Recruitment into the Labor Force: Social Networks among Filipinos in Hawaii. Amerasia Journal 13 (1986-87) * Shin, Eui Hang and Kyung-Sup Chang. Peripheralization of Immigrant Professionals: Korean Physicians in the United States. International Migration Review 22 (1988) * Chin, Ku-Sup, In-Jin Yoon, and David Smith. Immigrant Small Business and International Economic Linkage: A Case of the Korean Wig Business in Los Angeles, 1968-1977. International Migration Review 30 (1996) * Moberg, Mark and J. Stephen Thomas. Class Segmentation and Divided Labor: Asian Workers in the Gulf of Mexico Seafood Industry. Ethnology 32 (1993) * Gold, Steven J. and Nazli Kibria. Vietnamese Refugees and Blocked Mobility. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 2 (1993) * Kim, Kwang Chung, Won Moo Hurh, and Marilyn Fernandez. Intragroup Defferences in Business Participation: Three Asian Immigrant Groups. International Migration Review 23 (1988) * Min, Pyong Gap. From White-Collar Occupations to Small Business: Korean Immigrants' Occupational Adjustment. Sociological Quarterly 25 (1984) * Wong, Bernard. The Role of Ethnicity in Enclave Enterprises: A Study of the Chinese Garment Factories in New York City. Human Organizations 46 (1987) * Tseng, Yen-Fen. Chinese Ethnic Economy: San Gabriel Valley, Los Angeles. Journal of Urban Affairs 16 (1994) * Zhou, Min and John Logan. Returns on Human Capital Ethnic Enclaves. American Sociological Review 54 (1989) * Cheng, Lucie and Yen Le Espiritu. Korean Businesses in Black and Hispanic Neighborhoods: A Study of Intergroup Relations. Sociological Perspectives 32 (1989) * O'Brien, David J. and Stephen S. Fugita. Middlemen Minority Concept. Its Explanatory Value in the Case of the Japanese in California Agriculture. Pacific Sociological Review 25 (1982) * Woodrum, Eric, Colbert Rhodes, and Joe R. Feagin. Japanese American Economic Behavior: Its Types, Determinants, and Consequences. Social Forces 58 (1980) * Hein, Jeremy. State Incorporation of Migrants and the Reproduction of a Middleman Minority among Indochinese Refugees. Sociological Quarterly 29 (1988) * Barringer, Herbert R. and Gene Kassebaum. Asian Indians as a Minority in the United States: The Effect of Education, Occupations and Gender on Income. Sociological Perspectives 32 (1989) * Cabezas, Amado, Larry H. Shinagawa, and Gary Kawaguchi. New Inquiries into the Socioeconomic Status of Filipino Americans in California. Amerasia Journal 13 (1986-87) * Nee, Victor and Jimy Sanders. The Road to Parity: Determinants of the Socioeconomic Achievement of Asian Americans. Ethnic and Racial Studies 8 (1985) * Wong, Morrison G. The Cost of Being Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino in the United States 1960, 1970, 1976. Pacific Sociological Review 25 (1982) * Toji, Dean S. and James H. Johnson. Asian and Pacific American Poverty: The Working Poor and the Jobless Poor. Amerasia Journal 18 (1992) * Lee, Sharon M. Poverty and the U.S. Asian Population. Social Science Quarterly 75 (1994).