9633345 Gans Over the past decades, the growth of immigrant entrepreneurs has made a distinct and consequential presence in most large U.S. cities. The self-employment rate for some of these immigrants now exceeds that of the native born, particularly blacks. Immigrant groups such as Jews and Koreans have been touted as "model minorities" who have become successful simply through hard work. This Dissertation Improvement project investigates three areas: (1) the ways in which immigrant entrepreneurs affect the employment opportunity structure for blacks by examining their hiring practices; (2) the ways in which social structures and processes help explain the greater success of self-employment among immigrants as compared to blacks; (3) the interracial and inter-ethnic relations between Jews, Koreans, and black. The sample population consists of 75 entrepreneurs and 75 customers from five largely black neighborhoods in two cities, New York and Philadelphia. A comparative analysis will be conducted of Jewish, Korean and black entrepreneurs as well as black customers in low-income and middle-income neighborhoods to illuminate the interplay between the structural relationship of merchant and customer, race, ethnicity, class, culture and economic organization. ***** ??
