Study Guide Continued

Victor M. Valle and Rodolfo Torres: Latino Metropolis

Introduction

1) Explain the difference between fordist and post-fordist production. (unionized, well-paid versus cheap, non-unionized, “flexibilized” labor)

2) What is the percentage of Latinos in LA County?

3) In which type of employment is a majority of Latino workers employed?

4) To what extent is LA the largest manufacturing center?

5) Where is the manufacturing industry located in LA County?

6) Explain the implications of Proposition 187, 209, and 227 in California (p. 5)

7) What kinds of jobs have grown in California?

8) What is mestizaje? (p8)

9) Explain the difference the authors make between understanding Latino situation as a process of racialization rather than the result of race-relations. (p12-13)

10) How do the authors interpret the 1992 LA “race-riot”?

Background info on the Million Dollar Theater

Economic Geography of Latino Los Angeles

1) Discuss the statement: “The region’s low-tech post-Fordist firms have also replicated the advantages of going abroad, or virtual globalization, by targeting undocumented immigrants, partidularly Latinas, as their prime labor source.” (p. 17)

2) What is Margit Mayer’s point (see quote on p. 37) about the new position and government of “world cities”?

3) According to the authors, what are the differences between Latinos and African-Americans’ access to jobs? (p.42)

4) Name two Latino grass-roots organization in Los Angeles.

Mike Davis: Magical Urbanism

Spicing the City

1) When did Latinos outnumber Blacks in New York City, as the second largest ethno-racial group?

2) When did whites become a minority in California?

3) Discuss the demographic changes regarding Latinos in the US over the last two decades and projected to the year 2025.

Buscando America

5) Discuss the different meanings of Latino and Hispanic in various parts of the country. Which problematic do they bring to light?

6) Where does “Chicano” originate, and what does it signify? (p.17--)

7) What is a Latina/o?

The Latino Metropolis

According to Davis, in what type of zoning do most Latinos live in LA?

Discuss the “ethnic division of labor” in Los Angeles?

Anglos: private sector and entertainment industry

Asians: professions and light industry

Latinos: Manufacturing, labor-intensive services

African-Americans: Civil service occupations

What is the different role of capital from Mexico as compared to Asia in Los Angeles economy?

Which ethnic population “harvests” largely the Latino market?

(What is a maquiladora?)

Education Ground Zero

What are the characteristics of Latino Education in the US, in terms of drop-out statistics, bilingualism, and representation in higher education?

What effect does a high degree of racial and/or ethnic segregation have on the likelihood of good schools and standard English-language acquisition?

Saskia Sassen: “A New Geography of Centers and Margins: Summary and Implications”

Saskia Sassen’s concept of Global Cities provides a key to understand the connection between immigration and economy

1) territorialized dispersal of economic activities leads to growth of centralized functions

2) centralized control and management is not product of “world system” but requires production of specialized services

3) economic globalization contributes to new centrality and marginality

a. global cities become centers of economic power, with global reach, surpassing sometimes national influence

b. others, former manufacturing centers, decline rapidly

c. gap between skilled wage and unskilled wage labor intensifies,

i. i.e. Financial services produce super profits

ii. manufacturing declines

4) the locus of the peripheral

No longer a clear divide between first world countries and second or third world countries

Instead: third world conditions in first world cities

Now:

· peripherilization in global cities, in developed countries, right next to the most expensive commercial land,

· see for example LA’s Bunker Hill and Downtown Broadway Area

Inner cities are becoming global phenomena

· peripherilization also in labor division: trend to non-unionized cheap labor

Contested space

1) Cities are sites for concrete operations of the economy

i. In economic globalization, cities concentrate command functions, global markets and production sites for advanced corporate industries

ii. In day to day work, a large share of jobs involves low paid and manual work held by women and immigrants

2) City concentrates diversity

i. Dominant culture slips, because imminent is large influx of immigrants

ii. Leads to concentrations of large wealth and “others”

iii. A muiltiplicity of economies constitutes the so-called global economy

iv. Marginalized people become concentrated and start to make political demands

Nancy Foner: New Immigrants in New York, Introduction

1) What is the number of foreign-born New Yorkers in 1999? In what period was it even higher?

2) Compare the immigration in New York with the immigration in Los Angeles. Where do most immigrants come from in LA? Where from in Berlin?

3) What are the native minority populations in New York?

4) How and to what extent do ethnic communities foster and provide easier opportunities for new immigrants?

a. Describe transnational networks

b. Kin-migration

c. Ethnic enclaves (f.ex. Chinatown in Manhattan, Washington Heights in Northern Manhattan)

d. Describe examples of high ethnic self-employment

e. What places of employment have immigrants found, in a rapidly restructuring economy in NYC, that produced on one level “high-end” jobs, such as business services, law, banking, consulting etc. and on another “low-end” jobs, as domestic service, hotels, restaurants, car washing services, etc.?

f. What are the largest ethnic groups among NYC immigrants in the last 10 years?

g. Describe their settlement patterns. Are they living primarily in ethnically homogenous or rather in multi-ethnic neighborhoods?

h. What are the political advantages of high ethnic concentration?

i. How have immigrants affected New York City?

j. Describe the differences in human capital and employment niches of the major immigrant groups

Immigrants in Berlin

1) What has been traditionally the largest immigrant group in Berlin? Is this population still immigrating to Berlin?

2) When and why did this immigration flow start?

3) In what kinds of industries were these immigrants traditionally employed? Considering the economic restructuring, how have these immigrants been affected in terms of unemployment?

4) Discuss whether Saskia Sassen’s concept of global city applies to Berlin or not, and to what extent Turkish immigrants occupy a position similar to Latinos in Los Angeles and New York.

5) From where do the “new” immigrants come? (Eastern Europe, political asylum seekers)

6) How does the German immigration law differ substantially from the US immigration law? (How do you become a citizen in both states?)

7) A new immigration law, the “Zuwanderungsgesetz” just barely passed a few days ago in Germany (it is produced under significant participation of the Green Party, who has the highest number of immigrant voters. On the one hand, it is to curb the number of German origin immigrants from Eastern Europe, on the other the children of Turkish immigrants already in Germany. Another aspect of this law is to allow an easier immigration of highly skilled workers, particularly in information technology. Germans believe that the absence of highly qualified workers in this field jeopardizes their national economy. This new law allows a faster “processing” of immigrants, including children of immigrants and potential immigrants with special training in information technology (the green card initiative). A critical dimension in deciding of whether or not to allow people to immigrate has revolved around the issue of “integration” and “integratability”. For example, integration and integratability concern German language acquisition and employable educational training. How does that differ or is it similar to immigration debates in the US?

8) What forms of discrimination do people of Turkish descent encounter in Germany?

Doner Kebabs- the German equivalent to Hamburgers, replacing Bratwurst Imbiss as Fastfood

A Doner Kebab Stand, unfortunately in Turkey, not in Berlin

Susan Phillips: Wallbangin’ – Graffiti and Gangs in LA

1) What are the basic elements of gang graffiti?

2) What are the preferred surfaces for gang graffiti?

3) Define

a) Roll-Call

b) Throw-ups (tagging)

c) Political Graffiti

d) Cross-outs

e) La vida loca

4) What is the meaning and function of graffiti for a gangster? What makes them proud of it?

5) What is the meaning of the number 13 for Latino gangs?

6) What is the difference between the Surenos and the Nortenos?

7) Describe the vertical organization between Latino gangs?

8) What is the role of the prison in the formation and symbols of gang identity?

9) In broad strokes, what are the differences between Latino gangs and African-American gangs, according to Susan Phillips?

10) Give an example of the significance and function of gang handsigns: How are they used, what are they supposed to accomplish, how are they incorporated into graffit?

11) Be able to identify the major elements of graffiti.

12)Which issues does graffiti raise in terms of cities and social justice?

13) Can you make yourself a connection between between graffiti and the “broken window” theory discussed by Duneier? We do not learn much about it from Susan Phillips’ ethnography, but which questions could be asked, and which consequences could be assumed about having graffiti in a neighborhood?

Aras Oeren: Please, No Police

I don’t expect you to read the introduction. Just read the story.

1) Which main groups do the main characters represent? What role do these groups play in Berlin?

2) Describe the living conditions of the different characters?

3) What are the relationships between the people?

4) Why does the woman not help the old man after he slips?

5) Why does the daughter not go to work?

6) Why does she stay with her boyfriend?

7) Compare the German family to the Turkish family? How are they similar, how are they different?

8) Why does the young man from Turkey feel he has to run away?

9) What does this story suggest about the relationships between Germans, Turks, between younger generation and older generation, between East-Berlin (East Germany) and West- Berlin (West-Germany)?