Ethnic entrepreneurship

The recent growth of new ethnic populations in Western societies raised lots of issues. In fact, the ethnic activity is not any more a question of historic interest; nor is it the concern of the company. Because new ethnic populations grew at the same time as Western economies, they are in a phase of slow growth and are facing the massive technological challenge; the ethnic adaptation and the mobility are central questions(Waldinger 1990). In Europe, the activities managed by persons of minority ethnic groups were always present, but changeable historic circumstances increased jutting out to them and visibility during the last decades.

First of all, the important immigration of former colonies of Southern Europe and North Africa led to a considerable migration. Secondly, thirty years of economic change caused a fundamental transformation of the labor market and a general change of the employment in big companies to the independent work in young companies. This tendency struck certain groups of immigrant much harder than the other native populations, which is reflected by the higher unemployment rate among the immigrants (Barret and all. 1996). Thirdly, the second-hand structure for ethnic activities became more favorable as the change of Europe the industrial structure led to a reappearance of small and medium-sized enterprises (Blaschke 1990).

[...] A group of authors proposed in 1990 an interactive model to analyze ethnic entrepreneurship (Waldinger, Aldrich and Ward), and echoed by several model which is built from three dimensions. In this model, the opportunity structures are determined by market characteristics that promote or not products and services for members of an ethnic group, but also non-ethnic market. These opportunities also relate to the ability to entrepreneurship, which depends on the competition between ethnic groups, and public policy. Group characteristics concern the possible predisposition to entrepreneurship (culture, ambition, education, etc . [...]

[...] Similarly, the characteristics of each ethnic group are not to be overlooked because they play an important role in the ethnic minority entrepreneurship. These two elements of context have helped to build the concept of entrepreneurial ethnic enclave (Portes and Bach Sanders and Nee, 1987). V. ETHNIC NICHE Instead of middleman minorities, when the return home is not immediately envisaged, (Waldinger 1990) suggest that the immigrant will adopt a strategy 'Ethnic niche'. To cope with their difficulties and possible discrimination. [...]

[...] Limits of Ethnic Solidarity in the Ethnic Enclave Economy American Sociological Review, p. 745- 767 WALDINGER, R., H. Aldrich and R. Ward (1990a), ‘Opportunities, group characteristics and strategies’, in R.Waldinger,H. Aldrich and R.Ward Ethnic Entrepreneurs: Immigrant Business in Industrial Societies,London: Sage, pp. 13–48. WALDINGER, Roger. and al. (1990). Ethnic Entrepreneurs, Immigrant Business in Industrial Societies, Sage Series on Race and Ethnic Relations, Vol USA pages. YINGER, M.J. (1985), ‘Ethnicity’, Annual Review of Sociology 151–80 ZHOU, M. (1992). Chinatown: The Socioeconomic Potential of an Urban Enclave, Philadelphia, Temple University Press p. [...]