Polish and Somali Entrepreneurship and the Building of Ethnic Economies in Toronto - article ; n°1 ; vol.21, pg 167-181

Lucia Lo, Carlos Teixeira, Marie Truelove

Description

Espace, populations, sociétés - Année 2003 - Volume 21 - Numéro 1 - Pages 167-181
The Polish and Somalis immigrants in Toronto differ widely. The Polish is an older non-visible group with well-defined neighbourhoods complete with its own institutions, and the Somali is a more recent visible group much smaller in size and lacking an institutional structure. Based on a survey of Polish and Somali entrepreneurs arriving at Canada since 1981, the study finds that in comparison, the more recent Somali group relies much more heavily on community resources to start and sustain their businesses, and they face more economic barriers in the process of building their own ethnic economy. The results suggest that institutional completeness of an immigrant community may affect successful entrepreneur-ship.
Polonais et Somaliens à Toronto : la construction d'économies ethniques.
Les immigrants polonais et somaliens sont bien différents. Les Polonais sont un groupe d'immigrants plus ancien, peu visible bien qu'installé dans des quartiers spécifiques où il a su bâtir des institutions communautaires ; par contre, les Somaliens, groupe d'arrivée récente, sort nettement moins nombreux et n'ont pas encore bâti de structures institutionnelles spécifiques. Cette étude, basée sur une enquête auprès d'entrepreneurs polonais et somaliens arrivés au Canada après 1981, examine leur insertion dans l'économie et la société canadiennes. Le groupe somalien s'appuie davantage sur les ressources de la communauté pour démarrer et soutenir ses entreprises, et rencontre davantage d'obstacles économiques pour établir une économie ethnique. Les résultats suggèrent que la plénitude institutionnelle d'une communauté d'immigrants peut avoir un effet sur le succès de ses entreprises.
15 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique

Informations

• Publié par: ESPACE-_POPULATIONS-_SOCIETES
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2003
• Nombre de lectures: 17
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Lucia Lo
Carlos Teixeira
Marie Truelove
Polish and Somali Entrepreneurship and the Building of Ethnic
Economies in Toronto
In: Espace, populations, sociétés, 2003-1. Diversité des populations d'Amérique du Nord. pp. 167-181.
Abstract
The Polish and Somalis immigrants in Toronto differ widely. The Polish is an older non-visible group with well-defined
neighbourhoods complete with its own institutions, and the Somali is a more recent visible group much smaller in size and lacking
an institutional structure. Based on a survey of Polish and entrepreneurs arriving at Canada since 1981, the study finds
that in comparison, the more recent Somali group relies much more heavily on community resources to start and sustain their
businesses, and they face more economic barriers in the process of building their own ethnic economy. The results suggest that
institutional completeness of an immigrant community may affect successful entrepreneur-ship.
Résumé
Polonais et Somaliens à Toronto : la construction d'économies ethniques.
Les immigrants polonais et somaliens sont bien différents. Les Polonais sont un groupe d'immigrants plus ancien, peu visible
bien qu'installé dans des quartiers spécifiques où il a su bâtir des institutions communautaires ; par contre, les Somaliens, groupe
d'arrivée récente, sort nettement moins nombreux et n'ont pas encore bâti de structures institutionnelles spécifiques. Cette étude,
basée sur une enquête auprès d'entrepreneurs polonais et somaliens arrivés au Canada après 1981, examine leur insertion dans
l'économie et la société canadiennes. Le groupe somalien s'appuie davantage sur les ressources de la communauté pour
démarrer et soutenir ses entreprises, et rencontre davantage d'obstacles économiques pour établir une économie ethnique. Les
résultats suggèrent que la plénitude institutionnelle d'une communauté d'immigrants peut avoir un effet sur le succès de ses
entreprises.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Lo Lucia, Teixeira Carlos, Truelove Marie. Polish and Somali Entrepreneurship and the Building of Ethnic Economies in Toronto
. In: Espace, populations, sociétés, 2003-1. Diversité des populations d'Amérique du Nord. pp. 167-181.
doi : 10.3406/espos.2003.2071
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/espos_0755-7809_2003_num_21_1_2071Lucia
LO 4700 Department York University Keele Street of Geography
Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3
Canada
Carlos TEIXEIRA Department of Geography
University of Toronto
100 St. George Street
Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G3
Canada
Marie TRUELOVE School of Applied Geography
Ryerson University
350 Victoria Street
Toronto, Ontario M5B 2K3
Canada
Polish and Somali
Entrepreneurship and the
Building of Ethnic Economies
in Toronto
Major gaps exist in the scholarship on immig Somalis started their business, their mode of
rant entrepreneurs and their business, as operation, their current status, as well as
their future outlook. It attends to the barriers well as on the building of ethnic economies
in Canada's major cities.1 This study aims to they face and the strategies they use. As an
address such gaps by comparing the entre exploratory case study, the primary objec
preneurial behaviour of two immigrant tive here is to investigate whether institu
groups - Poles and Somalis - that are differ tional completeness of an ethnic community
entiated by their skin colours, as well as and institutional discrimination in the wider
their level of institutional completeness. It economy account for any variations. These
examines entrepreneurship as a process, questions are raised based on a brief review
looking at how and why the Poles and of the literature in the section that follows.
opportunities for themselves as well as others; and eth1 Following Lo et al. (2000) and others, we define
nic economy as an ethnic-based economic structure immigrant entrepreneurship as the initiative and ability
consisting of a set of enterprises all owned and manof immigrants to create business entities of any size,
aged by members of the same ethnic group. solely or jointly with others, providing employment 168
1. IMMIGRANT ENTREPRENEURSHIPAND THE BUILDING
OF ETHNIC ECONOMIES
speaking, it is market conditions that stimulIn examining immigrant entrepreneurship,
ate the entrance of immigrant businesses. scholars have raised some important quest
ions: Why do ethnic and immigrant groups Yet entrepreneurship and business success
become entrepreneurs? What makes for a are more common among some immigrant
successful business venture? Why are some groups, such as Jewish, Chinese and certain
groups more entrepreneurial than others? European immigrant groups, than others,
What are the pros and cons of participating particularly visible minority groups coming
in ethnic businesses, particularly with regard from the Caribbean and Africa. While the
to economic returns? Discussions and social embeddedness explanation appears to
debates on these questions remain largely be well-supported by the small pool of stu
inconclusive since immigrant entrepreneur- dies in Canada (Chan and Cheung, 1985;
ship is entangled in a web of complex pro Hiebert, 1993; Marger, 1989, 2001; Olson,
blems and benefits (Lo et al, 2000; Walton- 1991; Teixeira, 1998), a few have indirectly
Roberts and Hiebert, 1997). pointed to the role played by the larger pol
itical-economic context. For example, Henry Traditionally, there are two competing
(1993, 1994), Teixeira (2001) and Uneke explanations for the different rates of entre
(1994) wonder if racial discrimination by preneurial activities among ethnic and
immigrant groups. The "blocked mobility" some public institutions (such as through
limited access to credit) has not affected the thesis (also known as the disadvantage theo
participation and success of Blacks ' in ry) sees self-employment as a survival
Toronto, and Lo and Wang (2000) has linked strategy in discriminatory conditions or an
the changing size and variety of Chinese alternative to underemployment and low
businesses in Toronto to the various wages (Light, 1972; Waldinger, 1996). In
contrast, the "cultural thesis" suggests that Canadian immigration legislation that in the
past limited Chinese migration to Canada particular cultural characteristics predispose
and more recently encouraged Chinese busisome groups towards successful business
ness development in Canada. development (Bonacich and Modell, 1980;
Light and Rosenstein, 1995). A third expla It is in this context that we wish to explore
nation, the "social embeddedness" approach two specific questions - respectively related
proposed by Waldinger, Aldrich and Ward to their internal and external environments -
(1990), argues that entrepreneurial behavior to aid our understanding of immigrant entre
is influenced by the complex interaction preneurial behaviour. First, to what extent is
between two important dimensions: successful entrepreneurship of a particular
a) "opportunity structures" that include immigrant group related to its level of insti
market conditions and policies concerning tutional completeness as measured by the
the operation of business, and number and diversity of the group's social
characteristics" such as kinship and economic organizations (Breton, 1964)? b) "group
We believe a well-established community networks, advanced education, and access to
capital. with a refined business structure can provide
new entrepreneurs with greater support or More recently, Rath and his colleagues
propose a "mixed embeddedness" approach offer them more opportunities in their
business development. Institutional comp(Rath, 2000). This approach points out the
leteness can be regarded as a form of culimpacts of the broad political-economic
tural resources or perceived as a structural context, and the role played by public insti
condition. tutions as well as legislative and regulatory
practices. Our second question is related to the wider
In Canada, except for the highly regulated societal political structure within which
industries such as public utilities and banki immigrant businesses constitute. Does race
ng, there are no institutional policies on matter in the entrepreneurial pursuit of some
access to business ownership. Generally groups? Earlier research has 169
cial institutions. Thus we want to explore if identified financing as a crucial limiting
factor in business development among there is any differentials in "treatment", at
Black entrepreneurs in the US and in least in a perceived sense, between whites
Europe. In Canada, visible minority immig and visible minorities. This can be a key
rant groups have complained about the factor in understanding why visible minorit
"cultural insensitivity" of Canadian ies are underrepresented in business.
2. IMMIGRANTS FROM POLAND AND SOMALIA IN TORONTO
Since the introduction of the immigrant institutionally complete ethnic neighbour
point system in 1967, Canada has become hood in the Roncesvalles/High Park area