Ethnic enclaves can shield select residents from any need to master stranger interaction

Evidence

In the contemporary United States, those which do the best imitations appear to be ethnic neighborhoods. Initially established to provide mutual assistance and support among immigrants who knew neither the language nor the ways of their adopted land, these little enclaves have survived the assaults of the years. Despite mobility, despite the move to the suburbs, despite urban renewal, despite invasion by other groups, here and there they can still be found, weakened, bleeding, perhaps dying, and yet, still intact. To the degree that they are successful in maintaining both their existence and their integrity, village neighborhoods make it possible for at least some of their inhabitants not only to avoid the world of strangers, but to avoid even learning how to operate in a world of strangers. For these protected few (most usually, women and those able to work and live within the boundaries), to know another is still to know him personally. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 792

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the reader’s Lofland-through-urban-anonymity analysis: identifies who gets exempted from the blasé/stranger competence that Simmel describes as universal.
• SEED: Potential essay angle: the gender and labor dimension of village shelter — women and home-bound workers stay personally known while men shuttle through the stranger world — reveals how urban anonymity is distributed unequally.