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Why (Not) Hire an American? The Employer's View
Author(s) -
Rynearson Ann M.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
city and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.308
H-Index - 25
eISSN - 1548-744X
pISSN - 0893-0465
DOI - 10.1525/city.1989.3.2.165
Subject(s) - refugee , immigration , unemployment , ethnic group , monopoly , ethnography , demographic economics , politics , labour economics , work (physics) , white (mutation) , sociology , political science , economics , economic growth , law , market economy , mechanical engineering , biochemistry , chemistry , engineering , gene , anthropology
As in other areas, new immigrants in St. Louis are rapidly moving into certain economic niches in the labor market, while unemployment remains relatively higher for established American residents of the city. Based on a series of in‐depth interviews with business people who routinely hire refugees and immigrants, this article describes the employers' perceptions of the cost/benefit variables involved in selecting among three categories of potential employees —former monopoly‐sector workers, unskilled black and white Americans from the inner city, and refugees and immigrants. An analysis of the ethnographic data within a political economic framework leads to a model of some of the forces behind "disordered discrimination.” [employment, immigrant, refugees, work, ethnic succession]