Doctoral Dissertation Research: How Does Space Matter in Ethnic Labor Market Segmentation? A Case Study of Chinese in the San Francisco CMSA

在过去的几十年里，“族裔利基”（ethnic niche）——由某一特定族裔的工人主导的职业——的出现越来越多。对这一现象的大多数解释都集中在吸引他们从事特定工作的工人的个人特征，招聘和雇用的种族网络，以及创造了大量低工资和低技能工作的宏观结构力量，这些工作由移民填补。然而，在很大程度上，大多数研究都缺少空间。从民族飞地和空间劳动力市场的文献中，这个博士论文研究项目将研究对民族劳动力市场分割的空间影响——工人的住所和工作场所的位置如何影响利基职业的出现。该项目将包括对旧金山联合大都会统计区的华裔工人的案例研究，并将使用在高度受控的条件下可获得的详细的个人人口普查局数据集。这些数据在人口普查区一级确定了工人的就业部门、居住地点和工作地点。该项目将研究旧金山劳动力市场的种族划分，并确定中国的利基行业。它将确定中国的住宅和工作场所集中，并研究这些集中的社会和经济特征。它还将评估家庭和工作的地理位置如何影响中国职业利基的出现。分析将基于逻辑回归、多元方差分析（MANOVA）和基于gis的空间分析技术。研究人员希望证明，人力资本和社会资本是通过特定的空间安排建立起来的，居住和工作地点可以影响职业选择。本研究试图将工人和工作的空间背景纳入对劳动力市场种族分割的理解。空间劳动力市场的视角将与种族研究相结合，从而最终将居住隔离、劳动力市场分割和工作场所隔离联系起来。这些发现将为城市决策者提供一些至关重要的问题的宝贵见解。例如，居住隔离是否阻碍了劳动力市场的机会？少数民族聚居地给居民带来了更多的好处还是更多的坏处？劳动力市场的分割是否可以通过精心设计的住房和交通策略来消除？虽然本研究关注的是旧金山的华人，但其概念基础、数据和方法将广泛适用于其他族裔和大都市地区。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究生涯。

The past few decades have seen a rise in the emergence of "ethnic niches" -- occupations that are dominated by workers from a particular ethnic group. Most explanations of this phenomenon focus on the personal characteristics of workers that draw them to particular jobs, the ethnic networks of recruitment and hiring, and macrostructural forces that have created a large number of low wage and low skill jobs to be filled by immigrants. To a great extent, however, space is missing in most studies. Drawing from the literature on ethnic enclaves and spatial labor markets this doctoral dissertation research project will examine the spatial influences on ethnic labor market segmentation -- how the locations of workers' residences and workplaces influence the emergence of niche occupations. The project will include a case study of Chinese ethnic workers in the San Francisco Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area and will use a detailed individual-level Census Bureau dataset that is available under highly controlled conditions. The data identifies, at the census tract level, a worker's employment sector, place of residence, and place of work. The project will examine the ethnic segmentation of San Francisco's labor market and identify Chinese niche sectors. It will identify Chinese residential and workplace concentrations and examine the social and economic characteristics of these concentrations. It also will evaluate how the geography of home and work influences the emergence of Chinese occupational niches. The analyses will be based on a combination of logistic regressions, multiple analysis of variance (MANOVA), and GIS-based spatial analysis techniques. The investigators expect to demonstrate that human and social capital is built through particular spatial arrangements,and that residential and workplace locations can influence occupational choices.The proposed research makes efforts to incorporate the spatial context of workers and jobs into the understanding of the ethnic segmentation of labor markets. Spatial labor market perspectives will be integrated with ethnicity-race studies, thereby ultimately linking together residential segregation, labor market segmentation, and work place segregation. The findings will provide valuable insights into a number of questions of critical importance to urban policy makers. For example, does residential segregation impede labor market opportunities? Do ethnic enclaves confer more advantages or more disadvantages for their residents? Can labor market segmentation be eliminated through deliberately designed housing and transportation strategies? Although the present study is concerned with the Chinese in San Francisco, its conceptual foundation, data, and methodology will be broadly applicable to other ethnic groups and metropolitan areas. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.