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

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.