iii d - rath skills development for ethnic minority entrepreneurs
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Post on 18-Nov-2014
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DESCRIPTION
The upgrading of workforce skills is key to the competitiveness of SMEs. In today’s business environment there is a premium on innovation that enables firms to develop new products and services, new production processes and new business models. This requires both in-house innovation and the ability to absorb knowledge from other firms and organisations, both of which call for a skilled labour force. Skills are also a critical but understated resource for entrepreneurship seen in the sense of business creation. Similarly to workforce skills, entrepreneurship skills will boost the competitiveness of local businesses thanks to the improved strategic and management competences of the entrepreneur.TRANSCRIPT
Promoting Ethnic Entrepreneurshipwww.janrath.com
Department of Sociology and AnthropologyInstitute for Migration and Ethnic Studies (IMES) Center for Urban Studies
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Ethnic entrepreneurs
A simple, one-dimensional category?Pertaining to mom-and-pop stores only?Ethnic and (im)migrant: synonyms?Ethnic identity may influence daily business operations,
product range, marketing, financial strategy, staffing and staff management, etcBut this must be provenIn practice: multiple variations
Share of Self-Employment in the Total Employment Native and Foreign Born, 2007-2009 (%). Source: OECD 2010
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Understanding (ethnic) entrepreneurship: mixed embeddedness
Personal factors: motivation, education and language, professional skills and competences, financial capital, social networks
Opportunity structure: political, social and economic institutions, market developments, rules and regulations
See Kloosterman, R. & J. Rath (2003) Immigrant Entrepreneurs: Venturing Abroad in the Age of Globalization. Oxford/New York: Berg/University of New York Press.
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Promoting ethnic entrepreneurship: two surveys
1.A general inventory of measures to promote ethnic entrepreneurship in 32 European countries (2008)
2.A deeper inventory of interventions in 28 European cities (2011)
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Why absence of policies?
Immigrants not (yet?) entrepreneurial Belief that immigrants were not disadvantaged Integration policies biased towards socio-cultural
matters Belief that group-specific measures were ‘not done’ A strict non-interventionist logic prevailed
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Structural determinants
Specifics of immigration history Specifics of immigrant incorporation regime Make-up of welfare state and concomitant
entrepreneurial trajectories
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Choice of measures (2008)
Information 121
Advice 121
Training 107
Networking 96
Mentoring 84
(Access to) finance 79
Other 1
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Choice of measures (2011)
Advice and information services Finding a business location Access to finance Finding customers Building local connections and mobilizing transnational
links Finding and managing personnel Improving skills needed for business Targeting doubly disadvantaged groups Regulation and deregulation Urban revitalization Involving and empowering ethnic business associations
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Choice of measures (2011)
Advice and information services Finding a business location Access to finance Finding customers Building local connections and mobilizing transnational
links Finding and managing personnel Improving skills needed for business Targeting doubly disadvantaged groups Regulation and deregulation Urban revitalization Involving and empowering ethnic business associations
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Patterns
A politically sensitive topic (multicultural backlash) No ‘natural problem owner’: explicit promotion of
ethnic entrepreneurship is rare Measures – if any – were biased toward targeting
ethnic entrepreneurs’ deficiencies rather than opportunity structure
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What about promoting etnic entrepreneurship? Ethnic entrepreneurship did not play major role in
the overall integration strategy For as far as actually promoted, it rarely formed part
of bigger economic agenda Mainly offering training and coaching, business
accommodation or soft loans Ethnic entrepreneurs unaware of support schemes,
or reluctant to apply for outside support At the same time, governmental and civil-society
agencies often found it hard to reach out
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Conclusions
(Group-specific) interventions thin on the ground Over-confidence in ethnic minorities capabilities? >
support unnecessary Lack of confidence in ethnic minorities > support is
waste of money?? Neither demonstrates appreciation of what is actually
happening on the ground Missed opportunities?
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Thanks
Aytar, V. and J. Rath (2012) Selling Ethnic Neighborhoods: The Rise of Neighborhoods as Places of Leisure and Consumption. New York: Routledge
Kloosterman, R.C. and J. Rath (2003) Immigrant Entrepreneurs: Venturing Abroad in the Age of Globalization. Oxford: Berg
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