Is a term reinvigorated by two brilliant sociologists: Alejandro Portes and Kenneth L. Wilson. The term/concept refers to the marvelous construction of minority businesses into a tight community of buyers and sellers who replicate the center economy in microcosm so that the multiplier effect to their dollars is greatly enhanced. The ethnic enclave commonly includes residences and meeting places but is foremost a community of businesses. The importance of the ethnic enclave notion is that the idea of middlemen minorities had many weaknesses, and these weaknesses included overly narrow and negative views of the immigrant role in bulk cities.


To use these terms, cite their work:

Wilson, Kenneth L. and Alejandro Portes. 1980. "Immigrant Enclaves: An Analysis of the labor Market Experiences of Cubans in Miami." American Journal of Sociology 86 (September): 295-319.

And/or, especially when using ethnic enclave economics:

Wilson, Kenneth L. and W. Allen Martin. 1982. "Ethnic Enclaves: A comparison of the Cuban and Black Economies in Miami." American Journal of Sociology 88:1:135-160.


The term enclaves by itself was handled well by Mark Abrahamson in his book, Urban Enclaves: Identity and Place in America. 1996. New York: St Martin's Press. To quote Abrahamson's introduction on page 1: "The little worlds Park wrote about, when given the above clarifications, come very close to constituting what we will refer to as enclaves. To use the term enclave in this manner requires some broadening of its customary referents, though. In prior writings it has most frequently been used to refer to ... ethnic minorities [working] in economically self-contained ghettos such as Miami's Little Havana." Then with a footnote, he cites Park's (1925) The City and Wilson and Martin (1982) "... Economies in Miami."