Promoting Ethnic Entrepreneurship in European Cities: Sometimes Ambitious, Mostly Absent, Rarely Addressing Structural Features
| Author | Jan Rath,Anna Swagerman |
| Published date | 01 February 2016 |
| Date | 01 February 2016 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12215 |
Promoting Ethnic Entrepreneurship in
European Cities: Sometimes Ambitious, Mostly
Absent, Rarely Addressing Structural Features
Jan Rath and Anna Swagerman
ABSTRACT
An increasing number of immigrants have become entrepreneurial and many governments
expect or hope that the ongoing rise of ethnic entrepreneurship will contribute significantly to
the integration of immigrants, to their upward mobility, and to the economic development of
the city of residence. In this article we explore the rules, regulations and policy interventions
that shape self-employment trajectories in general and those of immigrant ethnic minorities in
particular. The article is based on a general inventory of measures to promote ethnic
entrepreneurship in 32 European countries, and a somewhat deeper inventory of policies and
interventions in 28 European cities. We came across all kinds of measures and interventions
and identified certain patterns, but the most striking finding was that such explicit measures
and interventions were actually thin on the ground. We conclude this article with a discussion
of the structural determinants of this outcome.
INTRODUCTION
Huawei smart phones, McDonald’s hamburgers, Dolce and Gabbana belts, “Bolex”watches, and
Levi’s jeans, but also Chinese bubble tea, Turkish d€
oner kebab, Moroccan henna, Bollywood
and Nollywood movies and Buddha statuettes. The appearance of this ever-broadening range of
“exotic”products in shops in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Istanbul or Lisbon reveals some of the deep-
ening links between less-developed and advanced economies. The ethno-cultural make-up of
advanced economies has significantly changed, due to immigration from both developed and less-
developed countries. The immigrant population in Europe is, moreover, rapidly becoming more
diverse in terms of ethnic or national origin, but also in terms of length of stay, educational
achievement, and socioeconomic position, a situation that Vertovec captured under the heading of
“superdiversity”(Vertovec 2007). These two highly visible aspects of globalization –international
mobility of capital and labour –are often directly interlinked as immigrants themselves introduce
their products and services, for example as owners of small businesses. A substantial number of
immigrants have indeed have set up businesses and become “ethnic entrepreneurs”, and the authori-
ties in many countries and cities expect or hope that their “ethnic entrepreneurship”will contribute
significantly to the integration of immigrants, their upward mobility, and the economic development
of the city of residence.
Ethnic entrepreneurs can be important for various reasons: they create their own jobs; can create
jobs for others; can develop different social networks from immigrant workers; and, last but not
University of Amsterdam
doi: 10.1111/imig.12215
©2015 The Authors
International Migration ©2015 IOM
International Migration Vol. 54 (1) 2016
ISS N 00 20- 7985 Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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