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609 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. 6 (2007)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0609 and id is 1 raw text is: Introduction
By
GEORGE WILSON

Studies of racial/ethnic inequality in the
American labor market at the dawn of the
new millennium are, arguably, of unprecedented
importance. First, from a sheer numbers stand-
point, forms of inequality have the potential to
have more widespread consequences than in the
past: in recent decades, racial/ethnic minorities
(both males and females) have experienced
growing representation in the American labor
market. In this vein, their proportion of the
full-time labor force has nearly doubled since
1970 (Foner and Frederickson 2004), and it is
projected that this trend will accelerate in the
next few decades (Farley 1996). In addition,
along this same line, the number of minority
groups in the labor force in the United States
has increased: the growing number of groups
who have a more visible presence than in the
past is a product of the new immigration in
the post-1965 period, which has included
Latino and sub-Latino groups; Asian popula-
tions from virtually all parts of that continent; as
well as a growing number of groups from the
Middle East, the continent of Africa, and the
small island countries in the Caribbean (Farley
1996; Bean and Bell-Rose 1999). Second, a
range of emerging trends within racial and eth-
nic minority populations pose fundamental new
research challenges for sociologists. Especially
noteworthy, in this regard, is the growing
socioeconomic differentiation experienced by
minority groups in recent decades (Farley
1996; Anderson and Massey 2000). In particu-
lar, minorities have become increasingly repre-
sented across the hierarchical occupational
structure from low-end, entry-level positions in
the rapidly expanding service sector, to tradi-
tional manual labor occupations associated with
the working class to management, executive,
and professional positions that constitute the
basis for the new minority middle class
(Landry 1987). Accordingly, researchers con-
tinue to focus principally on issues of exclusion on
DOI: 10.1177/0002716206297017

ANNALS, AAPSS, 609, January 2007

6

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