Nevada

Ethnic and Employment Networks

The eighth-fastest growing state in the nation, Nevada is about 84 percent white (including the 22 percent Hispanic white population), 9 percent black, and 6 percent Asian. Many of the newest migrants to the state have come from California, leading to cultural clashes with longer-term residents who feel that Nevadan culture is being diluted. Significant ethnic enclaves include Mexican Americans throughout Clark, Douglas, and Pershing Counties; the German Americans of Nye and Humboldt Counties; the Irish Americans of Washoe County; and the significant ethnic diversity of Las Vegas, which includes old African American neighborhoods and newer, rapidly growing Italian, Polish, Jewish, and Armenian neighborhoods. While Chinese Americans have lived in Nevada since the mining days, the rapid increase in the Asian American population came in the late 20th century after the 1965 immigration legislation opened the doors to nonwhite immigrants, leading many Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, and Vietnamese immigrants to settle in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. Official figures on Nevada's Asian population have been criticized as an underestimate and that the true numbers may be twice as high. Las Vegas today has a thriving Chinatown (which includes a substantial Taiwanese population), as well as an Asiatown of stores for Asian customers.

Between agriculture, construction, and the many jobs created by the gaming and hospitality industry in the Las Vegas area, Nevada has become a major destination for Asian and Latin American immigrants seeking work—and by extension for illegal immigrants, who are estimated to constitute about 8.8 percent of the population, one of the highest in the country. Social networks are strong among immigrant groups, both legal and illegal. Many ethnic communities in Nevada have roots in the early days of immigration to the state, when quotas restricted the number of immigrants from certain countries but created exceptions for citizens' families—resulting in close, extended-family ties among Nevada's immigrant communities, particularly among Asian American groups who faced significant opposition and discrimination from whites.

Although Nevada is famous for its legalized prostitution, this actually forms a very small part of the economy—but at the same time, a particularly important one, as it forms unique, employment-based social networks. State law is designed to allow prostitution while constraining it to the greatest extent possible: it is legal only in counties with less than 400,000 residents, and such counties must specifically vote to legalize it. As of 2010, 12 of the 14 counties have legalized prostitution. The eligible counties do not include Clark or Washoe, where Las Vegas and Reno are located, and therefore the bulk of the tourist traffic occurs in nonbrothel counties (although Storey County, where brothels are legal, is part of the Reno metropolitan area). Furthermore, legalized prostitution is heavily regulated. It can occur only within licensed brothels, prostitutes are employed as independent contractors, and strict health measures are enforced for safety (no Nevada brothel prostitute has [Page 640]ever tested positive for HIV). Most of the counties with legalized brothels have added their own conditions, such as limiting their presence to specific neighborhoods. As a result, only eight of the counties where brothels are legal actually have them: a total of 28, employing about 300 women and a small number of men. Because prostitutes work as independent contractors, they receive no benefits, are not eligible for unemployment, and pay a disproportionate amount of income and social security tax. Contrary to the fears of some outside Nevada, Nevada's legalization and regulation of brothels has not had any apparent effect on catalyzing a nationwide brothel movement.

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