ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the conventional stories about urban economic change, showing the intellectual development of these perspectives and providing a more detailed critique. The mismatch thesis occupies the place of honor in the literature on urban poverty. African-Americans and third world immigrants are sharply disparate in the discriminatory barriers that they face, in job orientations, in group resources, and in the ability to mobilize those resources competitively. The changing social structure of New York's traditional ethnic entrepreneurs has opened the door to new immigrant capitalists—who have rushed in to fill the breach. The influx of foreignborn workers has given the comatose manufacturing sector a new lease on life. Immigrants, so the story goes, have been a more pliable labor force, so factory employers have not been obliged to keep wages at parity with national norms. The immigrant network serves as a conduit to lower-cost, reliable labor in the broader community.
