What do Chinese restaurants teach us about the immigrant labor market?

Chinese immigration to the United States often evokes images of Chinatowns, featuring Lunar New Year Parades, dim sum restaurants housed in pagodas, and storefronts featuring herbal remedies or porcelain goods. Cities have long been gateways for new immigrants to establish businesses in pursuit of economic mobility, and researchers examining Chinese immigration have long relied on this trend. The authors of a recent paper in Social Forces have presented an alternative by researching “non-gateway” destinations through surveys of employment agencies (EAs) in New York City’s (NYC) Chinatown and Census data. In doing so, they shed light on why the Chinese restaurant business has successfully penetrated vast areas of the country beyond major cities and how this phenomenon should broaden conceptions of the immigrant labor market. Their results also suggest that policymakers should evaluate how access to “non-gateway” destinations can improve economic well-being for immigrant workers.

Through an analysis of jobs data provided by EAs, the study authors found that, contrary to common hypotheses about migration networks, Chinese restaurant jobs are more available in areas with high populations of non-Hispanic whites and Blacks rather than Asians. Other important factors included in the study’s models on job availability were employment rates, crime rates and income levels. These were all found to be influential factors impacting job availability, but even after adjusting for their variation, the finding that jobs are more available in areas with more non-Hispanic whites and Blacks held. Qualitative interviews matched the authors’ findings on employment and crime: Restaurant owners commented that low crime and low unemployment areas were more attractive business destinations. Median household income levels in ranges under $60,000 were positively associated with Chinese restaurant job availability. The authors posited that the affordability of Chinese restaurant meals allows low- and middle-income communities with strong employment rates to provide a reliable customer base. A second analysis in the study found that salary levels were higher in areas further from NYC. This result, combined with the relative availability of jobs in areas with lower Asian populations, implies that access to “non-gateway” destinations potentially serves as an avenue towards economic mobility for low-wage Chinese immigrant workers.

There are myriad social factors which serve as potential explanations for these findings. As rental prices and competition in NYC has made business ownership less accessible, the city saw a proliferation of Chinatown buses operated by Chinese immigrants. These buses serve low-skilled restaurant workers of multiple minority groups, thereby offering transit access to jobs in non-gateway destinations outside NYC. Accessible transit coupled with the job matching services at EAs has reduced employment barriers for low-wage workers, especially those with limited English proficiency.

This study’s findings also demand discussion on the cultural assimilation of new immigrants. The relative availability of Chinese restaurant jobs in areas with lower Asian populations may make a case to support the diversification of non-gateway communities, despite the risk of racial tensions between Chinese and non-Asian populations or the added difficulties for immigrants of assimilating with unfamiliar cultures. Furthermore, the study found that due to a shortage of Chinese immigrant workers in non-gateway locations, certain EAs specialize in recruiting Latino workers for Chinese restaurants. The establishment of Chinese restaurants in non-gateway destinations thereby facilitates interracial interactions in multiple ways.

Policymakers have lauded a thriving small business community as essential to the health of local economies. Small businesses also serve as a vital avenue for new immigrants to make meaningful contributions in their new homes and gain an economic footing. This paper suggests that policymakers should think beyond immigrant enclaves in cities and examine how the assimilation of immigrants and immigrant-owned businesses into non-gateway communities can be facilitated.

Article source: Liang, Zai, Jiejin Li, Glenn Dean, Zhen Li, and Bo Zhou. “From Chinatown to Every Town: New Patterns of Employment for Low-Skilled Chinese Immigrants in the United States.” Social Forces, Vol 97, Issue 2, 1 December 2018.

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