Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship, Diversity and Competitiveness

Abstract

It is increasingly recognized that entrepreneurship plays a central role in economic development and that entrepreneurs are key elements of change in market economies. This chapter examines the arguments and evidence to support the proposition that ethnic diversity, as such, is a potential source of competitiveness, through the involvement of members of ethnic minorities in entrepreneurship. The involvement of ethnic minorities in entrepreneurial activities has attracted growing interest in recent years for various reasons. The argument needs to be viewed in the wider context of growing evidence of the links between entrepreneurship and economic development at the national level. The chapter is also concerned with ethnic minority entrepreneurship in the UK. In UK context, ethnic minority communities are a result of a long history of immigration, which includes migrants from former colonial territories, as well as, more recently, asylum seekers and migrants from other member states of the EU. Keywords: asylum seekers; competitiveness; diversity; economic development; ethnic minority entrepreneurship