This study investigates how place, race, and ethnicity intertwine to produce the spatial division of ethnic enterprises in different types of metropolitan areas in the U.S.—established immigration gateways versus newly emergent immigration destinations.
The project uses the Survey of Business Owners (SBO), Business Register, Longitudinal Business Database, and Decennial Long Form data to address the following questions: (1) what are the characteristics of ethnic entrepreneurs and ethnic enterprises and how do they differ by group and by region, and (2) how are ethnic minority-owned enterprises socially and spatially embedded in each urban context, and (3) what are the impacts of place on the presence and performance of ethnic enterprises. This project will benefit U.S. Census Bureau programs by an investigation of variation in survey non-response in the SBO across ethnic groups (sampling frames), across economic characteristics of firms, and across geographic areas. Thus this study will increase the Census Bureau’s understanding of the quality of the SBO data, help improve imputations for non-response, and potentially help improve the sampling frame for the SBO.
The study will also aid the preparation of estimates and characteristics of the Hispanic and Asian sub-group populations and help minimize problems of missed and inaccurately represented subpopulations in the decennial census. Results from this project will help the Census Bureau to design and appropriately target bilingual forms, provide telephone assistance and telephone self-response options, and will thereby improve the accuracy and reduce the costs of conducting the census.
Qinfang Wang
David Wong