Community Forces, Social Capital, and Educational Achievement: The Case of Supplementary Education in the Chinese and Korean Immigrant Communities

2006 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
MIN ZHOU ◽  
SUSAN KIM

Extraordinary Asian American educational achievement has often been credited to a common cultural influence of Confucianism that emphasizes education, family honor, discipline, and respect for authority. In this article, Min Zhou and Susan Kim argue that immigration selectivity, higher than average levels of premigration and postmigration socioeconomic status, and ethnic social structures interact to create unique patterns of adaptation and social environments conducive to educational achievement. This article seeks to unpack the ethnic effect through a comparative analysis of the ethnic system of supplementary education that has developed in two immigrant communities — Chinese and Korean — in the United States. The study suggests that the cultural attributes of a group interact substantially with structural factors, particularly tangible ethnic social structures on which community forces are sustained and social capital is formed. The authors conclude that "culture" is not static and requires structural support to constantly adapt to new situations.

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikolaj Stanek ◽  
Alberto Veira

Using the Spanish National Immigrant Survey (NIS-2007) we identify the ethnic niches where workers from five main immigrant communities concentrate. We then implement logit models in order to assess how structural factors and human and social capital variables affect the odds of working in these niches. We observe that the strong segmentation of the Spanish labour market strongly favours the concentration of immigrants in certain occupational niches. Nevertheless, variables related to human and social capital still play a significant role in the placement of immigrant workers in different niches, all of which are not equally attractive. 


Author(s):  
Christina H. Moon

Fast fashion is often a story about the most powerful global retail giants such as Zara and H&M. The rise and dominance of fast fashion within the United States, however, areintimately tied to the work of Korean immigrant communities within downtown Los Angeles. In the last decade alone, Koreans have refashioned the city of Los Angeles into the central hub of fast fashion in the Americas, designing and distributing clothing from Asia to the largest fast-fashion retailers throughout the Americas. This chapter explores the work of these fast-fashion families who blur the lines between design and copy, author and imitator, exploiter and exploited. How do their modes of work profoundly transform the material object of clothing? How do they complicate the assumed directions and global flows of design and production in the global fashion industry? And finally, what role does risk and failure play—in a landscape of creativity, aspiration, and imagining—to make fast fashion even a possibility?


2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 260-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mingang Lin ◽  
Min Zhou

AbstractIn this article, we attempt to develop a conceptual framework of “ethnic capital” in order to examine the dynamics of immigrant communities. Building on the theories of social capital and the enclave economy, we argue that ethnic capital is not a thing but involves interactive processes of ethnic-specific financial capital, human capital, and social capital. We use case studies of century-old Chinatowns and emerging middle-class immigrant Chinese communities in New York and Los Angeles to illustrate how ethnic capital affects community building and transformation, which in turn influence the social mobility of immigrants. We also discuss how developments in contemporary ethnic enclaves challenge the conventional notion of assimilation and contribute to our understanding of immigrant social mobility.


1997 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margie K. Kitano

This article presents an analysis of personal, socialization, and structural factors affecting the life-span achievement of 15 Asian American women identified as gifted through a national retrospective study of highly achieving women from African American, Asian American, Latina, and White backgrounds. Interpreted within a cultural-ecological framework, findings support earlier research suggesting that Asian American parents' experiences of discrimination in this country encourage an intense focus on educational achievement and hard work as a way to ensure success. Teachers and schools, which similarly value hard work, reinforce this behavior. However, parents' and teachers' support of these women's academic achievement alone does not fully prepare them for the workplace, where they will need to consider career options, think critically about social issues, and respond effectively to institutional barriers. As adults in the workplace, gifted Asian American women find that hard work alone does not ensure advancement because of personal (e.g., self-doubt) and structural (e.g., stereotyping) obstacles. Nevertheless, gifted Asian American women find the workplace highly satisfying, stimulating, and challenging. Implications for educators are offered.


Author(s):  
Luis Escala Rabadán ◽  
Xóchitl Bada

Over the past two decades, scholarly research has increasingly documented and analyzed the role, variety, and significance of immigrants’ associations, specifically regarding their links to countries of origin and their centrality to the rise and consolidation of immigrant communities in destination countries. However, despite the increasing interest in the organizational dimension of Latin American immigrants, our knowledge in this field remains fragmented, and several gaps can be identified in the literature. This chapter provides a systematic review of the existing literature on immigrant organizational forms. The authors identify and offer possible explanations for the similarities and differences among these immigrant social structures. In addition, they consider examples of immigrant organizations as agents of incorporation and political participation in both sending and receiving countries. The geographical focus covers Latin American immigrants in the Americas and Europe, namely in the United States and Spain, their main destinations.


2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine J. Yeh ◽  
Patsy Tito ◽  
I'akabo Sao ◽  
Benson Wong ◽  
Darin Ow-Wing ◽  
...  

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