新作坊

Immigrant and Ethnic Enterprise in North America

摘要：

Examines the advantages that immigrant and ethnic minority groups have in small business in the United States. In twentieth-century America, the concentration of foreign-born ethnic and minority groups involved in small business was significantly greater than disadvantaged native minorities. Specific attention is placed on the case of native-born African Americans. Using the works of previous researchers, several theories are offered to explain this phenomenon. The reason for this difference is argued to be largely a result of access to ethnic resources which allows immigrants to outcompete native workers. Ethnic resources are different than class resources in that groups with class resources are individualistic whereas groups with ethnic resources are collectivisitic. These ethnic resources are based on pre-modern values and solidarities. If these values and solidarities can continue to exist, the foreign-born groups can continue to maintain an advantage over the native groups. Two potential causes for the destruction of these ethnic resources are ethnic capitalism and cultural assimilation. This destruction is usually slow to happen because ethnic business owners often earn substantial profits which encourage them to maintain their ethnic enterprise.