Emmanuel Ma Mung

Dispersal as a Resource

How can the geographic dispersion of a social entity be used as a ‘‘spatial resource’’? The notion of the spatial resource deserves to be elaborated: to my knowledge, it has never been defined as such before. Yet it is especially applicable to the study of how international migrants organize certain movements of people and material or immaterial goods in the contemporary world. This article is a contribution to the elaboration of such a notion. As long as the geographic scattering of subjects is pure and simple dispersion, to the exclusion of relationships between them, the resource does not exist. In fact, under such circumstances, the dispersion may even be perceived as a loss. Migration can be a negative experience: an isolated individual, far from his land of birth, may perceive his situation as exile. Grieving for his homeland, he often waxes nostalgic: a wealth of literature describes this situation. However, migration becomes positive when it is optimized and claimed by its subject. This act of claiming can be observed in certain interviews with migrants: the fact that one has family or relations in other countries is presented as a source of satisfaction and pride, proportional to the number of different countries and relations one has (Ma Mung, La Diaspora; Poisson). The dispersion can then be used to accomplish things that would otherwise be beyond one’s means. When a certain spatial arrangement is the key to accomplishments that would be difficult to achieve in another situation, the spatial arrangement becomes an asset. Indeed, it also becomes a social arrangement, because this spatial arrangement may become the argument that justifies a certain way of conceiving oneself as a social entity. Therefore, a spatial resource can be defined as a spatial arrangement that is available for the subjects of dispersion to use for their personal benefit.

The new landscape of immigrant entrepreneurship in France

The objective of this paper is to draw a statistical portrait of the immigrant entrepreneurship in France and provide elements of interpretation. The most visible shape of this entrepreneurship is trade, but the craft industry is numerically important. For 20 years, French researchers have highlighted a series of explanatory factors. If the segmentation of activities and the development of subcontracting significantly supported the increase of the immigrant companies in the craft sector, research undertaken on foreign tradesmen strongly suggests that the existence of more favourable conditions. Today, new approaches are based on an economy of diaspora and/or a circulatory economy.

Migrants of Chinese Origin in France: Economic and Social Integration

There are at least two perspectives from which it is possible to analyse international migration. We can observe the migration of population X in country Y or the place of country Y in the migration of population X. These two perspectives are very different. The first is the point of view of the settling country; it is the dominant one in the study of international migration. The second is the point of view of the migrant population. I privilege this perspective in this chapter, so I consider that Chinese immigration in France is the local manifestation of a global phenomenon: the Chinese diaspora. The main characteristic of this diaspora is its ‘entrepreneurial’ dimension. It is the topic of the first section where I describe the formation of the Chinese diaspora. In the second section I deal with the specificities of Chinese immigration in France and the cohabitation of two flows (post-colonial immigration and ‘free’ immigration). In the last section I show that economic integration operates through an ethnic labour market linked to the ‘ethnic Chinese economic device’ which is itself the local expression of the entrepreneurial character of the diaspora. The objective is to provide some general lines of interpretation that can be found in other places like Prato.

Les politiques d'aide à la création d'entreprises par les minorités aux Etats-Unis

Las politicas de ayuda a la creacion de empresas por parte de las minorias en los estados unidos : estudio critico ; Roger WALDINGER ; Los gobernantes tienen un doble interes referente al desarrollo de las pequenas empresas etnicas : por una parte favorecer la mobilidad de un electorado pequeno burgues, y por otra, fortalecer la idea de lo bien fundado del riesgo y reducir la desigualdad. Pero otro tipo de politica, (inspeccion del trabajo, rigidez en lo referente a la implantacion etc.) puede poner trabas a la iniciativa de creacion. En 1954, la creacion de la SBA (Small Business Administration), y mas tarde, en los anos 1960, de la MBEA (Minority Business Enterprise Agency) que garantizaban los prestamos bancarios a los miembros de las minorias creadoras de empresas, no llego a ser coherente hasta la epoca de la presidencia de Nixon con la promocion del capitalismo negro. La administracion del capitalismo negro. La administracion local se esforzo en seguir las directivas federales en 30 megalopolis. Sin embargo, los resultados no son demasiado positivos, la voluntad politica de ayuda a las minorias es fluctuante, el dinero escasea en las cajas de la administracion y numerosas empresas quiebran. En 1987, solamente 971 empresas que pertenecian a las minorias de las 6500 financiadas por la SBA, se encontraban en equilibrio financiero. Ademas, el 20 % de estas empresas no pertenecen en realidad a minorias y la financiacion no se hace comp lo exige la ley, bajo oposicion, sino gracias a redes de complicidad con las municipalidades.