Anatomy of a New Ethnic Settlement: The Chinese Ethnoburb in Los Angeles

TLDR

Ethnoburbs are suburban ethnic clusters of residential areas and business districts in large American metropolitan areas, typically multi‑ethnic communities where one minority group has a significant concentration without forming a majority. The paper proposes and operationalises a new ethnoburb model by analysing the demographic and socioeconomic profiles of the Chinese population in Los Angeles to understand its role as a global economic outpost. The authors analyse demographic profiles and socioeconomic characteristics of the Chinese ethnoburban population in Los Angeles to operationalise the ethnoburb model. The analysis reveals social stratification by country of origin and micro‑geographies of neighbourhood and workplace, illustrating the ethnoburb’s character as an urban mosaic.

Abstract

This paper proposes a new model of ethnic settlement, the ethnoburb. Ethnoburbs are suburban ethnic clusters of residential areas and business districts in large American metropolitan areas. They are multi-ethnic communities, in which one ethnic minority group has a significant concentration, but does not necessarily comprise a majority. The paper operationalises the ethnoburb model via an analysis of the demographic profiles and socioeconomic characteristics of the ethnoburban Chinese population in Los Angeles in order to understand the ethnoburb's role as a global economic outpost. This analysis also highlights social stratification by country of origin, and the micro-geographies of neighbourhood and workplace, features which reveal the ethnoburb's character as an urban mosaic.