Middleman minority explained

A middleman minority is a minority population whose main occupations link producers and consumers: traders, money-lenders, etc. A middleman minority, while possibly suffering discrimination and bullying, does not hold an "extreme subordinate" status in society.^[1] The "middleman minority" concept was developed by sociologists Hubert Blalock and Edna Bonacich starting in the 1960s but is also used by political scientists and economists. This idea was further developed by American economist Thomas Sowell.^[2]

Overview

There are numerous examples of such groups gaining eventual prosperity in their adopted country despite discrimination. Often, they will take on roles between producer and consumer, such as trading and moneylending. Famous examples such as Jews throughout Europe even at times when discrimination against them was high, Chinese throughout Southeast Asia and North America, Muslims and Parsis in India, Igbos in Nigeria, Indians in East Africa, Lebanese in West Africa, and many others.^[3]

Middleman minorities usually provide an economic benefit to communities and nations and often start new industries. However, their economic aptitude, financial success and clannishness, combined with social prejudices by other groups against businesses and moneylending, can cause resentment among the native population of a country. Middleman minorities can be victims of racist violence, terrorists, bullying, genocide, racialist policy, or other forms of repression. Other ethnic groups often accuse them of plotting conspiracies against their nation or of stealing wealth from the native population.

Examples

In Africa

• Indians in East Africa
• Igbos in Nigeria
• Syrians and Lebanese in West Africa

In South Asia

• Kashmiri Pandits in India
• Parsis in India

In North America

• Chinese Americans^[4]
• Japanese Americans^[5]
• Korean Americans^[6]
• Greek Americans
• Lebanese Americans

In South America

• Japanese in South America
• Lebanese in South America^[7]
• The majority of the 19th and early 20th centuries Middle Eastern immigrants to Brazil (Lebanese, Syrians, etc., collectively called "arabes" or "turcos", the latter term because they came from the Ottoman Empire) were peddlers, merchants and other types of non-"producers".^[8]

In West Asia

• Ottoman Greeks
• Arab Christians in the Arab world^[9]
• Hadhramis^{[10] [11] [12]}

Armenian

• Armenians in the Ottoman Empire^{[13] [14]}
• Armenians in Baku during the Russian Empire^[15]
• Persian Armenians in Safavid dynasty^{[16] [13]}
• Armenian Americans

Azerbaijani

• Azerbaijanis during the Imperial era of Iran (16th–20th centuries)^[17]
• Azerbaijanis in the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire^[17]
• Azerbaijanis in contemporary Iran^[17]
• Azerbaijanis in contemporary Russia^{[18] [17]}

Jewish

• American Jews^[19]
• European Jews^[19]
• Ottoman Jews^[19]
• Radhanite Jews

Elsewhere

• Chinese in Southeast Asia^[19]
• Chinese and Vietnamese in Russia and Eastern Europe since the fall of Communism and collapse of the Soviet Union^[20]

See also

• Colonialism, particularly exploitation colonialism and plantation colonies
• Dominant minority
• Market-dominant minority
• Minoritarianism
• Model minority
• Neocolonialism
  • World on Fire (book) Yuri Slezkine's book The Jewish Century (2004) discussed the concept of "Mercurian" people "specializ[ing] exclusively in providing services to the surrounding food-producing societies," which are characterized as "Apollonians"

Further reading

• Silverman, Robert Mark. 2000. Doing Business in Minority Markets: Black and Korean Entrepreneurs in Chicago’s Ethnic Beauty Aids Industry. New York: Garland Publishing.
• 12315137 . 30 . 2 . Ethnic enclaves and middleman minorities: alternative strategies of immigrant adaptation? . Apr 1987 . Sociol Perspect . 143–61 . 10.2307/1388996. 1388996 . Cobas . José A. . 28038205 .
• Pál Nyíri, Chinese in Eastern Europe and Russia: A Middleman Minority in a Transnational Era, 2007,

Notes and References

1. Middleman Minority Concept: Its Explanatory Value in the Case of the Japanese in California Agriculture. David J.. O'Brien. Stephen S. Fugita. The Pacific Sociological Review. 25. 2. April 1982. 185–204. University of California Press. 1388723. 10.2307/1388723. 158296209.
2. Book: https://www.shsu.edu/~kmd007/documents/WinFSHD2Userskmd007ArticlesMiddlemenMinorities.pdf . International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences . 2nd . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20100622002756/https://www.shsu.edu/~kmd007/documents/WinFSHD2Userskmd007ArticlesMiddlemenMinorities.pdf . 2010-06-22 . Middleman Minorities . Karen Manges . Douglas . Rogelio . Saenz .
3. Is Anti-Semitism Generic?. Thomas. Sowell. Hoover Digest. 2005. 3. Hoover Press. 2005.
4. Book: Chang, Iris . The Chinese in America: A Narrative History . 2004-03-30 . Penguin . 978-1-101-12687-5 . en.
5. Kitano . Harry H. L. . 1974 . Japanese Americans: The Development of a Middleman Minority . Pacific Historical Review . 43 . 4 . 500–519 . 10.2307/3638430 . 0030-8684.
6. Min . Pyong-Gap . Kolodny . Andrew . 1994 . The Middleman Minority Characteristics of Korean Immigrants in the United States . Korea Journal of Population and Development . 23 . 2 . 179–202 . 1225-3804.
7. https://books.google.com/books?id=mQovr42wLOwC&q=Essays+on+Twentieth-Century+History Essays on Twentieth-Century History p.44
8. [Jeffrey Lesser]
9. Book: Pacini, Andrea. Christian Communities in the Arab Middle East: The Challenge of the Future. Clarendon Press. 1998. 978-0-19-829388-0. 38, 55. 21 October 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20210310101859/https://books.google.com/books?id=KMfYAAAAMAAJ. 10 March 2021. live.
10. Book: Boxberger, Linda. On the edge of empire: Hadhramawt, emigration, and the Indian Ocean, 1880s-1930s. SUNY Press. 2002. 9780791452172. 2472-954X. 53226033.
11. Freitag. Ulrike. 1999. Hadhramaut: A Religious Centre for the Indian Ocean in the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries?. 1596090. Studia Islamica. 89. 165–183. 10.2307/1596090.
12. Book: Manger, Leif. The Hadrami diaspora: Community-building on the Indian Ocean rim. Berghahn Books. 2010. 9781845459789. 732958389.
13. [Thomas Sowell]
14. Book: Bloxham . Donald. Donald Bloxham . The Great Game of Genocide: Imperialism, Nationalism, and the Destruction of the Ottoman Armenians. The Great Game of Genocide . 2005 . . 978-0-19-927356-0 . en. 8-9.
15. Book: Hovannisian, Richard G. . The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times, Volume II: Foreign Dominion to Statehood: The Fifteenth Century to the Twentieth Century . 2004-01-17 . Palgrave Macmillan . 978-1-4039-6422-9 . 127 . en.
16. Blow; p. 213.
17. Book: Swietochowski. Tadeusz. Tadeusz Swietochowski. Russian Azerbaijan, 1905-1920: The Shaping of a National Identity in a Muslim Community. Cambridge University Press. 1985. live . https://archive.today/20211202211519/https://books.google.com/books?id=cozSOSsv7ZsC&pg=PA22%23v=onepage&q&f=false . 2021-12-02 . 9780521522458.
18. Braux. Adeline. Azerbaijani Migrants in Russia. Caucasus Analytical Digest. 3 December 2013. 57. 5. 5–7.
19. Bonacich. Edna. American Sociological Review. American Sociological Association. 38. 5. 583–594. 2094409. A Theory of Middleman Minorities. October 1973 . 10.2307/2094409.
20. Book: Pál, N. . Chinese in Eastern Europe and Russia: A Middleman Minority in a Transnational Era . limited . October 2007 . 10.4324/9780203933961 . 9781134063819 .