Ethnic Enclaves and Middleman Minorities

This article examines 2 modes or strategies of immigrant adaptation: middleman minorities and ethnic enclaves. Although they have been discussed as if they were disjointed and mutually exclusive, the authors challenge this view. Middleman minorities 1) tend to be self-employed or to work for a coethnic, 2) are usually concentrated in small business, 3) tend to rely on the in-group for resources, and 4) fill a "status gap" in the receiving society. Ethnic enclaves depend on 3 features: 1) recent coethnic arrivals spend a tour of duty at the worst jobs, 2) coethnics provide ethnic entrepreneurs with consumer markets, 3) ethnic businesses rely on each other to supply their operating needs. Ethnic enclaves are concentrated and spatially identifiable. For this study, the authors collected data in a survey of the Cuban exile community of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The sample selection procedure yielded a total of 261 individuals, 220 of whom were interviewed. 10 predictions found in the middleman minority and ethnic enclave perspectives were checked against the researchers' data. 4 of these predictions are hld in common by both approaches: 1) eomployment in an ethnic enterprise increases subsequent chances of self-employment, 2) ethnic firms rely on the in-group for business resources, 3) coethnic workers represent an asset to the ethnic entrepreneur in that they occupy important positions requiring the employer's trust, and 4) there is business competition between locals and minority members. As predicted by the middleman strategy, Cuban businesses in Puerto Rico tend not to be immediately productive and there is no evidence of spatial concentration of these businesses. However, fitting the enclave approach, these firms do not dominate certain business lines, Cuban entrepreneurs do not appear to be sojourners, and they tend to have business backgrounds. The middleman perspective is supported in that some elements of the local elite favor Cuban exiles. Thus, there is no evidence to support treating the middleman minority and ethnic enclave models as disjointed and discordant theoretical models. Neither approach is entirely accurate or inaccurate. The authors suggest that the 2 modes of adaptation are ideal types; therefore, actual ethnic economies exhibit some features found in each one.