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Chapter 11. The Formation of a Contemporary Ethnic Enclave: The Case of “Little Ethiopia” in Los Angeles
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C Ch ha ap pt te er r 1 11 1 The Formation of a Contemporary Ethnic Enclave: The Case of “Little Ethiopia” in Los Angeles ELIZABETH CHACKO AND IVAN CHEUNG INTRODUCTION The urban enclave is popularly characterized as an area of strong residential concentration and clustering of an ethnic population. The presence of ethnic businesses such as restaurants and retail stores, as well as services that cater to various other needs of area residents, add to the distinct ethnic feel of these enclaves (Ward, 1968, 1971; Sowell, 1981). While ethnic enclaves may be in part an outcome of racism and prejudice (Tchen, 1985 cited in Hayden, 1995; Abrahamson, 1996), they can also be a sustaining force as communities cluster for greater visibility, political influence, security, status, and empowerment (Clark and Morrison, 1995; Clark, 1998; Kaplan and Holloway, 2001). In this chapter, we investigate the creation of a contemporary ethnic enclave (Little Ethiopia) by a relatively new immigrant group (Ethiopians) in Los Angeles in 2002. The sprawling metropolis houses a plethora of ethnic, racial, and nationality groups; minorities add greatly to the diversity of its population. Although immigrant groups in the U.S. now tend to exist both within cities and in suburban locations (Zelinsky and Lee, 1998; Zelinsky, 2001; Singer, 2003), ethnic neighborhoods of distinct groups can be found scattered in many U.S. cities (Allen, 1996; Bobo et al., 2000; Hayden, 1995). Among the ethnic neighborhoods that are recognized and marked on L.A. city maps are Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Koreatown, Little Armenia, Thai Town and Little Saigon . Little Ethiopia in Los Angeles is the first city-designated Ethiopian enclave in the U.S. METHODOLOGY AND DATA We focus on the central city and inner suburbs of the primary metropolitan statistical area (PMSA) of Los Angeles, the city with the second-highest population of foreign-born Ethiopians in the U.S. To understand the characteristics and pathways to achieving enclave status, we examine the concentration and clustering of the foreign-born Ethiopian population and their businesses and institutions, the potential exposure of this ethnic population to other immigrant groups, and the political activities and activism of Ethiopians in the city. Using a multi-pronged approach that includes the use of descriptive statistics and geostatistics, as well as insights obtained from media reports and members of the community, we highlight the salient features involved in the designation of “Little Ethiopia” along a segment of Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles. We use the measures of concentration, clustering and exposure, to understand the spatial patterns exhibited by foreign-born Ethiopians in the Los Angeles PMSA and their implications for the formation of the ethnic enclave. Using Massey and Denton’s (1988) definitions, we characterize concentration as the relative amount of 132 Elizabeth Chacko and Ivan Cheung physical space occupied by the group. Clustering is the extent to which the tracts occupied by Ethiopians are adjacent to each other in space. Exposure refers to the degree of potential contact between this ethnic group and members of other groups. We use data from the U.S. Census 2000 STF (Summary Tape Files) 3 on foreign-born Ethiopians to investigate the strength of these three dimensions, employing the census tract as the unit of analysis . Statistics on Ethiopian businesses and their locations were obtained from the Ethiopian Yellow Pages for Los Angeles (Ethiopian Yellow Pages, 2002–2003). Data on political activism and efforts of Ethiopian immigrants to demarcate ethnic space and gain greater recognition as a significant and growing population were gleaned from print media coverage of such activities and from communications with local community leaders. Using a threshold of 100 Ethiopian foreign-born persons per square mile, we identified clusters of the ethnic group through visual interpretation of density maps in the Los Angeles PMSA. We computed the Entropy Index,1 a diversity index defined by Theil and Finezza (1971) and Theil (1972), to evaluate the degree of diversity at the local level. The Entropy Index assumes that maximum diversity occurs when each immigrant group has an equal share, implying even distribution within the geographic unit (Massey and Denton, 1988; Iceland, 2002; Wong, 2002). We also computed the Exposure Index,2 an asymmetrical measure devised by Lieberson (1981), to evaluate the level to which Ethiopian foreign-born persons within the clusters were exposed to selected groups of foreign and native-born populations. This index incorporates the spatial interaction process because it is determined for clusters that are made up of contiguous census tract...