Recent trends in minority ethnic entrepreneurship in Britain

Abstract

This article examines trends in entrepreneurship among minority ethnic groups in Britain. It begins with an analysis of how self-employment rates for different ethnic groups have evolved since the early 1990s. We find that rates of self-employment have fallen for Indians and the Chinese and argue that this is due to increased opportunities in paid employment, partly brought about by demographic change. However, entrepreneurs from these groups still work the longest hours. In contrast, self-employment rates have risen for Black Caribbean males in recent years and remain high for Pakistani males. We also document how the proportion of the self-employed with employees has varied over time and discuss trends in the extent to which the self-employment of different ethnic groups is concentrated within particular sectors.

Family embeddedness and entrepreneurship experience: a study of Indian migrant women entrepreneurs in Australia

“…With the increasing salience and visibility of ethnic entrepreneurs globally, ethnic and migrant entrepreneurship is often recognized as contributing positively to the host nation's economic activity (Clark and Drinkwater 2010;Beckers and Blumberg 2013) as well as being a tool for immigrants' integration into the host society (Hiebert 2002;de vries 2012). Although the terms 'ethnic entrepreneurship' and 'immigrant entrepreneurship' are often used interchangeably, there is a subtle difference between them (volery 2007; Azmat 2010).…”

“…Indian immigrant entrepreneurs have been researched as an ethnic group as a result of their increasing emigration to countries such as Australia, Canada and the U.S. (Basu 1998;Dhaliwal and Kangis 2006;pio 2007;de vries 2007;Clark and Drinkwater 2010). Existing research in the context of Australia has provided useful insights into the obstacles faced by entrepreneurs with recognition of their overseas qualifications (Constance et al 1991), the blocked mobility faced by Asian entrepreneurs (Stromback and Malhotra 1994) and how Asian women migrant entrepreneurs' linguistic and cultural backgrounds, as well as racism and sexism, impact their entrepreneurial experiences (Collins and Low 2010;Chiang, Low, and Collins 2013).…”

Interpreting the narratives of Māori entrepreneurs

“…Some EMGs are said to fall into entrepreneurship due to disadvantage factors such as specific cultural features and discrimination in paid employment (Clark & Drinkwater, 2010;Light, 1979). It has been noted, in practice, that entrepreneurship may be a more economically viable option for EMGs who are not willing to accept lower wages because of their migratory status (Cain & Spoonley, 2013;Light & Bonacich, 1988).…”

South Asian ethnic minority small and medium enterprises in the UK: a review and research agenda

“…The structuralist view, however, refutes this argument and claims that higher levels of entrepreneurship among South Asians than other groups in the UK is in fact the result of absence of well paid employment opportunities and the presence of, or fear of, undesirable consequences such as redundancy, unemployment and underemployment (Jones and Ram, 2010;Clark and Drinkwater, 2010;Brah, 1996) due to reasons such as continued discrimination in the job market and lack of necessary skills. Research suggests that such a reality exists even outside the UK as it was found to be the case with ethnic Indian descent immigrants in Christchurch, New Zealand (Pio and Dana, 2014).…”