Desired Residential Mobility in a Low Income Ethnic Community: A Case Study of Chinatown

This article examines the social and economic underpinnings of desired residential mobility in an ethnic community. Using interview survey data, desired residential mobility in Chinatown was examined using social theories of urban location regarding ethnic settlement and neighborhood homogeneity. Residents want to stay not because it is an ideal place of residence, but because of social, economic, and language disadvantages relative to white American society. Residents who want to leave are those with fewer disadvantages, who thus have the opportunity to search for belter housing and a better life. Although Warner and Srole's thesis of the ethnic settlement process and Burgess and Wirth's theories of neighborhood homogeneity were largely confirmed, the salient environmental stressor of crowding was found to contribute significantly to the desire to move. This points to the importance of social and environmental contributors to the desire to move. This study also offers evidence that desired residential mobility is determined by age as well as by class, perceptions of crowding, and attitudes regarding ethnic homogeneity, and that neighborhood homogeneity occurs along these lines as well. Both class and ethnicity are determinants of residential location. This article highlights the particular conditions of stability and mobility in ethnic immigrant‐entry communities.