Immigrant Growth Machines, Interracial Conflict and Spatial Embeddedness in the Chinese San Gabriel Valley of LA

• In Event: 2166 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 11: Race & Space

Abstract

This paper investigates the rise of the Chinese immigrant growth machine and its spatial embeddedness as a robust ethnic economy in the political and economic structure of Los Angeles. It emerged out of collaborative research with two scholars of Los Angeles Koreatown, Angie Chung and Sookhee Oh. While immigrant growth machines emerged as agglomerative ethnic economies in a broader metropolitan context of white flight, slow growth movements and declining consensus for growth in Los Angeles, I examine how the Chinese immigrant growth machine has navigated interracial and political conflicts over land-use development at the regional and neighborhood level in the San Gabriel Valley suburbs. Census and field interview data help to depict the spatial and political configuration of the Chinese San Gabriel Valley suburbs. While earlier waves of immigrants were more spatially embedded in local political and economic structures there is some shifting to more affluent transnationals whose investments are more disembedded from the ethnic economy.

Author

• Jan C. Lin, Occidental College