ABSTRACT
The influx of Latino and Asian immigrants to Southern California has transformed the region's demographic composition; the changing population has redefined the meaning of race relations, particularly as it pertains to labor-market issues facing minority groups. This is a more nuanced and complicated framework, encompassing multiracial and ethnic configurations and new forms of conflicts among minorities, and certainly between majority and minority groups. Economic conflict has become a source of tension among different factions, aiding a conservative backlash against civil rights and a nativist movement bent on stopping immigration. Perhaps the most volatile and contentious factor in this conflict is the notion of job competition among various groups of low-skilled workers, usually between an immigrant and a U.S.-born minority group.
