Abstract
This paper examines the role of location and ethnicity in paths to entrepreneurship among immigrants in Israel. focusing on differences between immigrants of Eastern (Middle Eastern and North African) and Western (European and American) origin, and between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan locations. Analysis is based on census data for cohorts of immigrants defined by age and year of immigration and on a survey of blue-collar and distribution small businesses. The combination of a population of Eastern origin and peripheral location created the most restricted paths to entrepreneurship. These paths were characterized by a high dependency on kinship and social networks for advancement through blue-collar and distribution self-employment opportunities in locations where such opportunities and supportive networks were least available.
Highlights
Promoting the small business economy has been a major element in local development strategies, which have become increasingly popular since the 1970s
Examination of conditions and processes influencing entrepreneurship in various locations cannot be limited to such factors, since entrepreneurship is to a large extent a social phenomenon associated with kinship and wider social networks
It is assumed that shifts in the local composition of small businesses have involved mainly the entrance of new immigrant groups or young age cohorts into the labor market, whereas the occupational and spatial mobility of those already in the Israeli labor market has been limited
Summary
Promoting the small business economy has been a major element in local development strategies, which have become increasingly popular since the 1970s. It is argued that entrepreneurship has played a different role in the mobility routes of Israel's two major immigrant groups: those from Middle Eastern and North African countries, who tended to enter the Israeli labor market at the bottom levels; and those from European and American countries, who came with qualifications and contacts that enabled them to begin at higher levels of the occupational ladder. It is argued that immigrants of Eastern origin followed different entrepreneurial paths than those of Western origin The former tended to enter the bottom levels of the Israeli labor market and might have increasingly utilized blue-collar and distribution entrepreneurial niches for advancement. The older immigrants came from Europe with a tradition of petty enterprise and with much better contacts and qualifications to implement this tradition in Israel than expetty entrepreneurs from Middle Eastern and North African countries Those immigrating as children presumably tended to exit from petty entrepreneurial occupations, such as retail, to white-collar, salaried jobs. The residential pattern of an immigrant group, while influencing the local supply of potential entrepreneurs, influences markedly the ability of the immigrant group to advance through entrepreneurship
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