Photography taken by Ana Espinosa Seguí in Brussels, 2007

Ana Espinosa Seguí

Human Geography Department

University of Alicante (Spanien)

0.- What is ethnic?

1.- What is ethnic economy?

2.- How is it established?

3.- Which agents participate in the ethnic economy?

4.- Is ethnic economy important for social integration?

MAIN POINTS OF DISCUSSION

- “Ethnic economy is perceived as an alternativeavenue of economic attainment (success) among immigrants through their ethnic resources and ties (Fong & Ooka, 2000)”

- According to Bonacich, Modell and Light, ethnic economy “includes any (ECONOMIC ACTIVITY TAKEN BY ANY) immigrant or ethnic group’s selfemployed, employers and coethnic employees”

1.- What is ethnic economy?

- Economy control - Employment network control

Sociology

Economy

Geography

What is ethnic economy?

2.- How is established?

Sociocultural

Entrepreneurial

Institutional

Economic

Territorial

BASIS

Try to find at least one

explanation for each of

these reasons

Source: http://www.metropoleruhr.de/ (Accessed 01/03/2011)

Source: http://www.metropoleruhr.de/ (Accessed 01/03/2011)

10,9

10,7

11,1

9,4

24,9

11,2

11,3

11,2

9,7

25,5

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Total de la población

Hombres

Mujeres

Alemanes

Extranjeros

(%)

2009 2010

Foreigners

Germans

Women

Men

Global population

Which agents are participating in the ethnic economy?

Try to make a list of agents with your partners and analyse their roles

5 minutes

Which agents are participating in the ethnic economy?

Entrepreneurs

Consumers

Retail environment or competitors

Territory

Which agents are participating in the ethnic economy?

- Ethnic entrepreneurs are simultaneosuly owners, managers or operators of their own businesses.

- They belong to groups that have a common cultural heritage and/or origin.

- Two main kinds of ethnic entrepreneurs can be distinguished:

a)Middleman minority entrepreneurs b)Ethnic enclave entrepreneurs.

(Zhou,2007)

Which agents are participating in the ethnic economy?

(Zhou,2007)

a) Middleman minority entrepreneurs

- Those who trade in between a society’s elite and the masses

- Before settling definitely down, they used to travel between the host country and their country of origin in order to make businesses

- They can be included in the host society’s mainstream economy

- Usually, their businesses are not located in not coethnic communities

- Few ties to the social structures and social relationships of these local communities

Which agents are participating in the ethnic economy?

(Zhou,2007)

b) Ethnic enclave entrepreneurs

- Entrepreneurs bounded by ethnicity, ethnic community’s social structures and a geographical location- These businesses were born as a answer for satisfying coethnics’ demands

- Businessmen can belong to ethnic enclaves, but also to the middlemen minorities

Source: http://www.sanfranciscochinatown.com/

Some ethnic enclaves can be denatured…

- Social capital refers to the networks of social relations that may provide individuals and groups with access to resources and supports (Jeannotte, 2008)

- Market niches not used by retailers who belong to the host society (Portes y Sensebrenner, 1993)

- The reception in a new country is always easier if immigrants are helped by other immigrants with more know-how

IMMIGRANT NETS (Staring, 2000)

Strong links Weak links

(Family and close friends) (Colleagues and friends)

Funding and work Information about the market

PROVIDELow costlabour

Informationand

Know-how

Friendly help

Business school

Customers and suppliers

ETHNIC RESOURCES

Cultural resources: religion, language, social and moral values and entrepreneurial predisposition

Material resources

Information: advices and orientation

Experience: formation

Which agents are participating in the ethnic economy?

- Connationals consumers

- Transumers

- Consumers from the host society

Who are the main consumers of these ethnic businesses?

Which agents are participating in the ethnic economy?

- The institutional structure of each country or region will influence ethnic economy- The territory can provoke three main processes:

a) INVASION – SUCESSION

b) VACANCY CHAIN

c) SYNERGY

Which agents are participating in the ethnic economy?

- Depending on the offer of other retailers, the area will create a synergy or will show two circuits of businesses.

- The biggest will be the offer of ethnic business, the densest will be the relationships between businessmen and consumers

What is Social Integration for you?

How is possible to achieve this social integration of immigrant population?

Could you prepare a definition? (in groups)

“The stability of relationships between parts of a socia system”

“The process that links, improve and maintain together different elements, creating a new structure”

Definition of Fundación Europea para la Mejora de las Condiciones de Vida y de Trabajo

¿What is Social Integration?

- Fong, E. y Ooka, E. (2000): “The social consequences of participating in the ethnic economy”. The International migration review, vol. 36, nº 1, pp 125-146.- HILLMANN, F. (2006): “Gendered landscapes of ethnic economies: Turkish entrepreneurs in Berlin”, in Landscapes of the ethnic economy, ed. David Kaplan and Wei Li, Rowman & Littlefield publishers, Inc, 192 pp.- KAPLAN, D. y LI, W. (2006): “Introduction: the places of ethnic economies”. En David Kaplan y Wei Li (ed.). Landscapes of the ethnic economy, Rowman & Littlefield publishers, pp .- KLOOSTERMAN, R., VAN DER LEUN, J. y RATH, J. (1999): “Mixed embededdeness, (in)formal economic activities and inmigrant businesses in the Netherlands”. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, n° 23, pp 252-266.- KLOOSTERMAN, R., VAN DER LEUN, J. y RATH, J. (2001): “Immigrant entrepreneurs in advanced economies, mixed embeddedness further explored”. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, n° 27, pp 189-201.- PORTES, A. y SENSEBRENNER, J. (1993): “Embeddedness and migration: notes in the social determinants of economic action”. The American Journal of Sociology, nº 98, pp 1320-1350.

-PORTES, A. (1995): “``Economic sociology and the sociology of immigration: a conceptual overview”, in Alejandro Portes (editor): The Economic Sociology of Immigration: Essays on Networks, Ethnicity and Entrepreneurship, Russell Sage Foundation.- PORTES, A. (1998): Social Capital: Its Origins and Applications in Modern Sociology, Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 24. (1998), pp. 1-24.- STARING, R. (2000): “Flows of people: globalization, migration and transnational communities” in The ends of Globalisation: bringing society back, ed. Don Kalb, Marco Van der Land, Richard Staring, Bart Van Steenbergen y Nico Wilterdink, Lanham, Rowman and Littlefield, pp 203-216.- VOLERY, T. (2007): ”Ethnic entrepreneurship: a theoretical framework”. En Leo Paul Dana (ed.). Handbook of research on ethnic minority entrepreneurship, Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, pp 30-41.- WALDINGER, R. (1984): “Immigrant enterprise in the New York garment industry”. Social Problems, n° 32, pp 60-71.- WILPERT, C. (2003): “Germany: from workers to entrepreneurs” en Immigrant entrepreneurs: venturing abroad in the age of globalization. In Robert Kloosterman y Jan Rath (ed.), Berg Publishers, chapter 12.- WOOLCOCK, M. (1998): “Social capital and economic development: toward a theoretical synthesis and policy framework”. Theory and Society, vol. 27, pp 151-208.