Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (JEMS)
ISSN 1369-183X print / 1469-9451 online

Articles

Robert Kloosterman and Jan Rath
Immigrant entrepreneurs in advanced economies: mixed embeddedness further explored [Abstract]

Ewald Engelen
'Breaking in' and 'breaking out': a Weberian approach to entrepreneurial opportunities [Abstract]

Karl Froschauer
East Asian and European entrepreneur immigrants in British Columbia, Canada: post-migration conduct and pre-migration context [Abstract]

Giles A. Barrett, Trevor P. Jones and David McEvoy
Socio-economic and policy dimensions of the mixed embeddeness of ethnic minority business in Britain [Abstract]

Eran Razin and Dan Scheinberg
Immigrant entrepreneurs from the former USSR in Israel: not the traditional enclave economy [Abstract]

Maggi W.H. Leung
Get IT going: new ethnic Chinese business. The case of Taiwanese-owned computer firms in Hamburg [Abstract]

Marlou Schrover
Immigrant business and niche formation in historical perspective: the Netherlands in the nineteenth century [Abstract]

H. Richard Friman
Informal economies, immigrant entrepreneurship and drug crime in Japan [Abstract]

Abel Valenzuela Jr
Day labourers as entrepreneurs? [Abstract]

Report

Michael Banton
International report
(Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 27 No. 2: 353-358)

Reviews

Adrian Favell,  Veit Bader (ed.) Citizenship and Exclusion; Rainer Bauböck and John Rundell (eds) Blurred Boundaries: Migration, Ethnicity and Citizenship; Robin Cohen and Zig Layton-Henry (eds) The Politics of Migration

Margarita Mooney, Christian Jopppke (ed)  Challenge to the Nation-State: Immigration in Western Europe and the United States

Joseph M. Bradley, Norbert Finzsch and Dietmar Schirmer (eds), Identity and Intolerance: Nationalism, Racism and Zenophobia in Germany and the United States

Adeel Khan, Edward Mortimer and Robert Fine (eds) People, Nation and State: The Meaning of Ethnicity and Nationalism

Gwenda Morgan, Alison Games, Migration and the Origins of the English Atlantic World

Jeroen Doomernik, K.-L. Chin, Smuggled Chinese: Clandestine Immigration to the United States

Amalendu Misra, Darshan Singh Tatla, The Sikh Diaspora: The Search for Statehood

Boris A. Portnov, Richard Isralowitz and Jonathan Friedlander (eds) Transitions: Russians, Ethiopians and Bedoins in Israel's Negev Desert

Mikael Hjerm, David Brown, Contemporary Nationalism: Civi, Ethno-Cultural and Multicultural Politics

Cristóbal Mendoza, Pablo Vita, Crossing Borders, Reinforcing Borders: Social Categories, Metaphors and Narrative Identities on the US-Mexican Frontier

Kathleen Valtonen, Deborah Woo, Glass Ceilings and Asian Americans: The New Face of Workplace Barriers

Abstracts

Robert Kloosterman and Jan Rath
Immigrant entrepreneurs in advanced economies: mixed embeddedness further explored
Abstract This paper introduces the JEMS special issue on immigrant entrepreneurship and mixed embeddedness. The special issue has grown out of an EC-funded programme of networking research entitled ‘Working on the Fringes: Immigrant Businesses, Economic Integration and Informal Practices’. Our opening paper provides a contextual overview for the case-study papers which follow. We pay particular attention to the mixed-embeddedness thesis and especially focus on the demand side of the opportunity structures framework which confronts potential immigrant entrepreneurs. We propose a three-level strategy for analysing the opportunity structure and its underlying dynamics, based on national, urban/regional and neighbourhood levels of comparison. In the final part of the paper, we identify several possible future lines of research.
Keywords: Immigrant entrepreneurship; Opportunity Structures; Mixed embeddedness; small business
(Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 27 No. 2: 189-201, © 2001 Taylor and Francis Ltd)

Ewald Engelen
'Breaking in' and 'breaking out': a Weberian approach to entrepreneurial opportunities
Abstract Immigrant entrepreneurship has become a fashionable research topic. Most studies betray a distinct Anglo-American bias – first in their emphasis on social capital and ethnic networks, second in their disregard for the institutional dimension, and third in their implicit economic liberalism. Instead, a more neutral conceptual framework is needed to aid comparative research. To do so this paper endorses a Weberian approach to entrepreneurial opportunities. Following Weber I define market co-ordination as voluntary exchange and markets as a distinct product space delimited by the level of substitutability of the goods in question. This definition makes it possible to distinguish between different political–economic regimes at the macro level and between different types of markets at the micro level. However, ‘breaking in’ is only one part of the story. Recently, the attention given to innovative strategies of immigrant entrepreneurs – or ‘breaking out’ – has waxed. As it stands, this type of research is severely biased towards spatial strategies as well as toward assimilationist premises. Hence, here too a more neutral map is needed. Following Michael Porter’s influential analysis of competitive processes, I construct a much broader list of innovative practices. Finally, I try to demonstrate the relevance of Weber’s economic sociology for the study of immigrant entrepreneurs by presenting some hypotheses on the types of markets and the sorts of strategies that seem to be relevant for immigrant entrepreneurs.
Keywords: Immigrant Entrepreneurship; Weberian Approach; Markets; Economic Sociology; Innovation
(Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 27 No. 2: 203-223, © 2001 Taylor and Francis Ltd)

Karl Froschauer
East Asian and European entrepreneur immigrants in British Columbia, Canada: post-migration conduct and pre-migration context
Abstract This paper addresses the limitations of theoretical models of immigrant and ethnic entrepreneurship by observing that the pre- and post-migration experiences of business owners who entered Canada through the business immigration programme in the 1980s and 1990s were not, as these models assume, from the working class but members from the entrepreneur class. The orientation of that programme toward bolstering investments in provincial manufacturing sectors does not, however, coincide with business immigrants’ accumulation strategies. Through an examination of two groups of immigrant manufacturers, East Asians and Europeans, the paper concludes that the post-migration accumulation strategies of each group differ because their pre-migration experiences with politico-institutional processes and structural developments in the (newly-industrialising) economies of the Asia-Pacific and the (post-industrialising) Euro-American region differ. Although the ‘new’ East Asian and ‘new’ European immigrants face the same immigration selection process and the same opportunity structures in setting up a variety of light manufacturing firms in Canada, they differ substantially in their selection of a business language, in the continuation of their line of business, in their acquisition of production skills, in their reliance on product designs by others, and in their multicultural and co-ethnic employment practices.
Keywords: Entrepreneur Immigrants; East Asian Migrants; European Migrants; British Columbia; Manufacturing
(Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 27 No. 2: 225-240, © 2001 Taylor and Francis Ltd)

Giles A. Barrett, Trevor P. Jones and David McEvoy
Socio-economic and policy dimensions of the mixed embeddeness of ethnic minority business in Britain
Abstract Ethnic minority businesses in Britain are examined in relation to the concept of mixed embeddedness. Earlier intellectual approaches emphasising cultural factors, urban and economic contexts, and public policy are identified. Ethnic minority businesses are shown to be typically small, to compete in saturated spatial markets and to be concentrated in economically vulnerable sectors. Moreover their fragile position has been further destabilised by the effects of government policy. Special attention is given to the repeal of the Shops Act, which limited the opening hours of shops. We conclude that an unintended outcome was the entry of large-scale chains into the formerly protected niches of South Asian-owned businesses. This represents a catastrophic occurrence for some ethnic minority firms. Meanwhile, public policy related to enterprise support and the regeneration of the urban fabric has been largely ineffective in the arena of ethnic minority business. The whole picture is complicated by generational differences in minority communities and by continuing restrictions on immigration.
Keywords: Ethnic Minority Business; Mixed Embeddedness; Protected Niches; Enterprise Support; Business Regulation
(Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 27 No. 2: 241-258, © 2001 Taylor and Francis Ltd)

Eran Razin and Dan Scheinberg
Immigrant entrepreneurs from the former USSR in Israel: not the traditional enclave economy
Abstract Based on data from the 1995 census and on a literature review, we examine whether immigrants from the former USSR in Israel tend to gravitate into self-employment, and whether the characteristics of these immigrant entrepreneurs resemble those in prominent ethnic economies elsewhere. Despite expectations, the propensity of new immigrants from the former USSR to engage in business was found to be low. These immigrants lacked developed ethnic networks and relevant experience in marketing. The relatively few who turned to self-employment did not concentrate particularly in niches typical of immigrant entrepreneurs around the globe, being either relatively uninterested in entering traditional ethnic entrepreneurial niches, or unable to penetrate substantially into niches occupied by other Jewish groups or by Arabs. Immigrant entrepreneurs thus concentrated in niches at two extremes of the occupational ladder: those based on high levels of education at the top and the non-skilled ones at the bottom. The more entrepreneurial Arab minority group, hindered by inferior educational standing and discrimination, gravitated more to traditional ethnic entrepreneurial niches, although being constrained by geographical concentration in non-metropolitan localities. It is doubtful whether informal practices are a major issue among immigrant entrepreneurs in Israel, since such practices are prevalent among other groups. Clearer norms for the operation of businesses could even make it easier for immigrants to enter the small business economy, as long as these norms are not aimed at restricting competition.
Keywords: Immigrant Entrepreneurs; Ethnic Niches; Enclave Economy; Israel
(Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 27 No. 2: 259-276, © 2001 Taylor and Francis Ltd)

Maggi W.H. Leung
Get IT going: new ethnic Chinese business. The case of Taiwanese-owned computer firms in Hamburg
Abstract Drawing on qualitative, semi-structured interviews with Taiwanese entrepreneurs who operate mostly small- to medium-scale businesses in the computer sales sector in Hamburg (Germany), this paper brings out the diversity of ‘ethnic entrepreneurship’, a notion which is conventionally used almost exclusively for labour-intensive light industries and service-sector activities run by family members or co-ethnics of migrant communities. In order to understand the complex operation strategies of these entrepreneurs, I use the concept of ‘mixed embeddedness’, which emphasises the crucial interplay of the social-cultural aspects on the one hand, and that of the local and broader economies on the other. This paper will highlight the importance of developments in production and marketing of the computer hardware industry, the economic conditions in Asia, and the socio-economic environment in Germany in shaping operation tactics, including location rationale, choice of business type and marketing strategies of these enterprises. In addition, the roles of local and transnational ethnic networks in facilitating both business and personal life of these overseas Chinese entrepreneurs in Germany will also be discussed.
Keywords: Taiwanese Migrants; Hamburg; Computer Firms; Ethnic Enterprise: Transnational Networks
(Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 27 No. 2: 277-294, © 2001 Taylor and Francis Ltd)

Marlou Schrover
Immigrant business and niche formation in historical perspective: the Netherlands in the nineteenth century
Abstract This article presents an historical perspective on niche formation amongst migrants. Four case studies show four quite different routes niche formation can take. The routes depend on the characteristics of the niche and of the host society. Contrary to current ideas there was no evidence of groups of migrants moving from one niche to the next. Neither were niches vacated by a group of migrants filled by more recent arrivals. Most importantly niches developed gradually whereby both the niche and the group took shape during the process of niche formation.
Keywords: Immigrant Business; Niche Formation;The Netherlands; German migrants; Opportunity Structure
(Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 27 No. 2: 295-311, © 2001 Taylor and Francis Ltd)

H. Richard Friman
Informal economies, immigrant entrepreneurship and drug crime in Japan
Abstract With few exceptions, criminal entrepreneurship has been excluded from the broader scholarly and political debates over immigrant business. Drawing on the case of illicit drug markets in Japan, I argue that entrepreneurship has increased during the 1990s, though not to the extent claimed in the public debate over immigrant criminality. Immigrant entrepreneurship patterns in the illicit drug trade appear to be shaped by the resources of different migrant groups and, more importantly, by interrelated and shifting opportunity structures found in Japan’s formal, informal and criminal domains.
Keywords: Immigrant Entrepreneurship; Drugs; Crime; Informal Economy; Japan; Iranian immigrants
(Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 27 No. 2: 313-333, © 2001 Taylor and Francis Ltd)

Abel Valenzuela Jr
Day labourers as entrepreneurs?
Abstract The literature on entrepreneurship is primarily elitist, placing a large emphasis on firm size and location, innovation, proprietorship, and capital start-up. Missing from this body of literature are the temporary, low-wage self-employed. Using day labourers as a case study, I challenge the narrow and conceptually problematic definitions of entrepreneurship while also countering popular perceptions of day labour. Drawing upon 481 randomly surveyed day labourers, ethnographic field notes and in-depth interviews, I empirically show that a significant segment of the day labour population comprises an entrepreneurial class. I argue that day labourers fit into the class of entrepreneurs known as survivalist entrepreneurs. Day labourers show characteristics of both value and disadvantaged survivalist entrepreneurs in their day-to-day search for employment. I conclude that a larger number of day labourers fall under the ‘disadvantaged’ rubric of survivalist entrepreneurs, with the remainder undertaking this form of employment for reasons of choice and other attributes congruent with their labour market and personal values related to autonomy and flexibility.
Keywords: Day Labourers; Temporary or Casual Workers: Informal Economy: Entrepreneurship; Sourthern California; Latino Migrants
(Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies Vol. 27 No. 2: 335-252, © 2001 Taylor and Francis Ltd)