Martin N. Marger

Ethnic Enterprise in Ontario: Immigrant Participation in the Small Business Sector.

Participation in the small business sector by immigrants in Ontario is examined, using a theoretical model that views immigrant enterprise as a product of class and ethnic resources in combination with a favorable opportunity structure. Hong Kong Chinese predominate among recent immigrant entrepreneurs and are concentrated in the Toronto metropolitan area. These patterns are attributed to strong push factors in the sending society and the existence of an institutionally complete Chinese community in the receiving society, supporting a well-developed ethnic subeconomy that has taken on many of the features of an ethnic enclave.

The use of social and human capital among Canadian business immigrants

Social capital in the form of ethnic networks and family ties is assumed to function critically in the establishment and operation of immigrant-owned businesses. In this paper I argue that, although the formation and expenditure of social capital may typify the experiences of many immigrant entrepreneurs, some enter the host society with sufficient human capital to enable them to forego the utilisation of social capital in the adaptation process. To test this hypothesis, interviews were conducted with 70 immigrant entrepreneurs in the province of Ontario between 1993 and 1995. All interviewees entered Canada under the auspices of the Canadian Business Immigration Program, a federal programme designed to attract immigrants with demonstrable business and managerial skills, a critical form of human capital. All, therefore, had pre-migration intentions of entrepreneurship in the receiving society. What is found among these business immigrants is a minimal reliance on social capital in establishing and operating their firms. It is concluded that immigrants entering the host society with pre-migration intentions of business ownership possess sufficient human capital to enable them to disregard the formation and utilisation of social capital in their economic adaptation.

Social and human capital in immigrant adaptation:: The case of Canadian business immigrants

Abstract Purpose: With the resurgence of immigration to North America in the past three decades, research on immigrant adaptation and the attendant issues of assimilation has burgeoned. A prevailing assumption of much of this research is that social capital is a vital resource enabling immigrants to find their economic and social niches in the host society. In a word, social capital is a key factor in the immigrant adaptation process. This assumption has been especially prominent in research focusing on one specific subset of immigrants: entrepreneurs. Social capital in the form of ethnic networks and family ties is assumed to function critically in the establishment and operation of immigrant-owned businesses. This paper argues that although the formation and expenditure of social capital may typify the experiences of many or even most immigrant entrepreneurs, some enter the host society with sufficient human and/or financial capital that enables them to forego the utilization of social capital in the adaptation process. Methods: To demonstrate, I draw upon in-depth interviews conducted with 70 immigrant entrepreneurs in the province of Ontario, Canada between 1993 and 1995. All interviewees entered Canada under the auspices of the Canadian Business Immigration Program, a federal program designed to attract immigrants with demonstrable business and managerial skills that presumably will lead to the establishment of a firm and thus to the subsequent creation of jobs and economic activity. A formal requirement of their entrance, then, is the possession of proven business skills, a critical form of human capital that facilitates successful economic adaptation in the host society. Forms of social capital are described and their applicability to the adaptation experiences of the interviewees is analyzed. What is found among these business immigrants is a minimal reliance on social capital in establishing and operating their firms. In securing investment capital, finding a work force, and acquiring information, ethnic and family ties, the most common forms of social capital for immigrants generally and for immigrant entrepreneurs in particular, do not play a major role. Solidarity with co-ethnics and the use of family labor, so common among conventional immigrant entrepreneurs, are not of significant import in the economic adaptation of these business immigrants. Moreover, ties to coethnics are only minimally significant in patterns of social adaptation as well. Results: It is concluded that immigrants entering the host society with pre-migration intentions of business ownership possess sufficient human capital that enables them to disregard the formation and utilization of social capital in their economic and social adaptation. In this they differ from immigrants who take a more conventional path to business ownership, that is, laboring in the mainstream work force following entrance into the host society and gradually accumulating resources that lead to entrepreneurship. For business immigrants with children, however, social capital does play a key role in the decision to immigrate. Business immigrants are prepared to abandon successful firms in the origin society in order to provide their children with a more promising socioeconomic environment, including above all what is viewed as superior opportunities for education. Hence, the social capital that inheres in close-knit family arrangements provides incentive for parents to accept losses in financial capital in order to increase their children’s human capital. Conclusion: The context of the receiving society may also be seen as a form of social capital for Canadian business immigrants. All declare that quality of life, rather than the lure of financial success, serves as their major incentive to immigrate to Canada. Moreover, the fact that they enter a society that officially proclaims its multicultural character offers them the opportunity to become Canadian but to retain their ethnicity. The source of social capital in this case, then, is not the ethnic community, but the broader society.

Business strategies among East Indian entrepreneurs in Toronto: The role of group resources and opportunity structure

Abstract This article examines the class and ethnic resources used by East Indian immigrants in self‐owned enterprise and the opportunity structure within which they operate. A non‐probability sample (N=38) of East Indian entrepreneurs in Toronto is the primary data source. Major findings attest to an individualistic business strategy employed by these entrepreneurs in which class resources are more consequential than ethnic networks or communal ties.

Transnationalism or assimilation? Patterns of sociopolitical adaptation among Canadian business immigrants

Abstract This study analyses patterns of sociopolitical incorporation among immigrant entrepreneurs in Ontario who entered Canada under the auspices of the federal Business Immigration Program [BIP] between 1984 and 1994. The analysis focuses specifically on issues of transnationalism, adaptation to mainstream social and political institutions, and citizenship. In-depth interviews of a sample of BIP entrepreneurs reveal that, over a period of eight to eighteen years, respondents generally achieved a high level of political awareness, maintained weak transnational ties, and naturalized at an extraordinarily high rate. In the process of sociopolitical integration, respondents relied primarily on human forms of capital, especially English language proficiency and business skills, rather than on the social capital that inheres in ethnic communities and networks.

East Indians in small business: Middleman minority or ethnic enclave?

Abstract The East Indian small business class of Toronto is examined, using middleman minority and ethnic enclave models as an analytic framework. The most apparent feature of this entrepreneurial group is its bifurcated structure: one element is linked to the ethnic community while another is virtually independent of it. While some of the features of middleman minorities are evident, neither middleman nor enclave patterns of ethnic enterprise are clearly apparent. East Indian entrepreneurs follow a more individualistic path, engendered by the absence of a spatially‐concentrated East Indian community and relatively unhindered accessibility to the small business sector of the majority economy.

Religiosity in Canada and the United States: Diverging Paths

Comparing degrees of religiosity, Canada and the US have been moving along divergent trajectories for the past several decades. Regional variations are evident in both societies, but, taken as a whole, the divergence holds up even when these intrasocietal differences are accounted for. Neither the classic secularization thesis nor the more popular religious economy model in the sociology of religion adequately explain the contemporary disparities in religious practice and belief in the two societies. More compelling explanations lie in human security and welfare state models. Canadian and US demographic patterns, particularly internal differences among recent immigrants, are additional explanatory factors. Levels of existential security and immigration trends in the two societies are likely to sustain the divergence in religiosity.

Asians in the Northern Ireland economy

Abstract Patterns of immigration and settlement of Chinese and Indians in Northern Ireland are examined, and analysis is made of the economic roles they currently play. Both groups are found to be demographically small and dispersed, almost entirely concentrated in the petit bourgeoisie, and occupationally specialised. Virtually the entire Chinese population is confined to the restaurant trade, and Indians are disproportionately active in the retail clothing trade. Future growth for both population groups is unlikely, due to restrictive immigration laws as well as their specialised occupational status. Surprisingly, Ulsters ethnic conflict has not played a major role in the adaptation process of either group.