Showing papers by "Alejandro Portes published in 1989"

Contemporary immigration: theoretical perspectives on its determinants and modes of incorporation.

Abstract: This article reviews conventional theories about different aspects of labor migration: its origins stability over time and patterns of migrant settlement. For each of these aspects the authors provide alternative explanatory hypotheses derived from the notions of increasing articulation of the international system and the social embeddedness of its various subprocesses including labor flows. A typology of sources and outcomes of contemporary immigration is presented as a heuristic device to organize the diversity of such movements as described in the empirical literature. (authors)

The enclave and the entrants: patterns of ethnic enterprise in Miami before and after Mariel

Abstract: Four hypotheses concerning the character and consequences of participation in an ethnic enclave economy are examined. The first concerns the justifiability of operationalizing enclave participation on the basis of place of residence, as done in recently published research. The second and third pertain to the effects of ethnic economy participation on entrepreneurs and workers, respectively. The fourth deals with determinants of self-employment among ethnic minorities. Two data sets are employed in this analysis: the 1980 Census individual sample for Cuban-born adult immigrants in South Florida and a 1983-86 longitudinal survey of Mariel entrants in the same area. These two independent data sets permit a more authoritative evaluation of the hypotheses. They also allow an assessment of the extent to which earlier findings about the pre-1980 Cuban-born population apply to the more recent entrants. Results consistently contradict depictions of ethnic enterprise as vehicles for exploitation and of enclaves as mere residential agglomerations. These structures are defined by physical proximity of firms, not dwellings. Ascriptive factors-primarily gender and marital status-play a decisive role in the emergence of enclave enterprise net of human capital endowments. Theoretical implications of these findings, in particular the relationship between intact nuclear families and the rise of an entrepreneurial minority, are discussed.

Latin American urbanization during the years of the crisis.

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to review recent trends in the process of urbanization in major Latin American cities. Particular attention is paid to accelerating primacy the spatial polarization of social classes and high levels of informal employment. The author also explores the extent to which these characteristics are peculiar to Latin America and whether they are common throughout the region or are specific to certain countries. (EXCERPT)

La economía informal

Abstract: El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar de que manera las actividades desarrolladas por las empresas informales interactuan con las estructuras sociales existentes y las practicas y politicas de fiscalizacion de los Estados nacionales. Es a traves de estas interacciones como se pone de manifiesto el caracter paradojico de la economia informal y se ilustran con mayor fuerza las conclusiones que se emplean para elaborar las teorias economicas y sociologicas del comportamiento del mercado. Tras analizar varias definiciones y enfoques de medicion posibles, el trabajo centra la atencion en estos factores dinamicos, focalizados en cuatro paradojas: los fundamentos sociales de la economia informal; la ambiguedad de las relaciones con las regulaciones del Estado; las dificultades para definirla; su funcionalidad en relacion con las instituciones economicas y politicas que presuntamente socava.

Sociology and Development in the 1990s: Critical Challenges and Empirical Trends

Abstract: Recent transformations of global economic structures have been accompanied by divergent national, regional, and local patterns of development, including severe socioeconomic crises for many Third World countries. At the same time, established conceptualizations of development processes have been called into question by divergent models of social change, such as those of world systems and postmodernist theorists. These phenomena present major analytical challenges for sociologists specializing in the study of development. New technologies and production processes, changing forms of international dependency, and the appearance of new social actors are among the most important topics for study. We argue that political economy, based on midrange propositions and comparative historical methods, constitutes the most fruitful approach to this task.

La informalidad como parte integral de la economía moderna y no como indicador de atraso: respuesta a Klein y Tokman

Abstract: El comentario de Klein y Tokman refleja una lectura cuidadosa de nuestro anterior articulo y en muchos puntos no existe un desacuerdo esencial.1 La tesis basica que formule en el trabajo con Lauren Benton es que gran parte de las actividades economicas informales en America Latina, lejos de hallarse aisladas en un sector ' 'tradicional' ' o atrasado, constituyen parte integral de la economia moderna y contribuyen a su funcionamiento. Los mecanismos por medio de los que se establecen vinculos entre empresas modernas formales y actividades informales a menudo se hallan bastante ocultos, pero no por ello dejan de ser reales. El uso que la empresa moderna hace de tales vinculos para escapar de la rigidez en la contratacion laboral y de las onerosas prestaciones sociales da lugar a la continuacion y aun expansion de estas practicas. El peculiar "modo de incorporacion informar* del trabajador al sector moderno que asi se genera puede explicar, a nuestro juicio, la aparente falta de dinamismo de este sector para absorber la fuerza laboral. En otras palabras, la proporcion de trabajadores efectivamente empleados por las empresas formales puede ser bastante mayor que la senalada en las estadisticas oficiales.