Author Description

The Economic Sociology of Immigration forges a dynamic link between the theoretical innovations of economic sociology and the latest empirical findings from immigration research, an area of critical concern as the problems of ethnic poverty and inequality become increasingly profound. Alejandro Portes's overview of sociological approaches to economic phenomena provides the framework for six wide-ranging investigations into ethnic and immigrant labor networks and social resources, entrepreneurship, and cultural assimilation. Mark Granovetter illustrates how small businesses built on the supposedly archaic bonds of ethnicity and kinship can not only survive in a modern economy but, under certain conditions, flourish remarkably well. Bryan R. Roberts demonstrates how immigrant groups' expectations of the duration of their stay influence their propensity toward entrepreneurship. Ivan Light and Carolyn Rosenstein chart how specific metropolitan environments have stimulated or impeded entrepreneurial ventures in five ethnic populations. Saskia Sassen provides a revealing analysis of the unexpectedly flexible labor market networks maintained between immigrants and their native countries, while M. Patricia Fernandez Kelly looks specifically at the black inner city to examine how insular cultural values - particularly views on adolescent pregnancy - hinder the acquisition of skills and jobs outside the neighborhood. Alejandro Portes also discusses cultural maladaptation in the inner city, depicting the clash between the attitudes of American-born youths and those of recent immigrants, and its effects on the economic success of immigrant children.