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The Employment Potential of Refugee Entrepreneurship: Soviet Jews and Vietnamese in California
Author(s) -
Gold Steven J.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
review of policy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.832
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1541-1338
pISSN - 1541-132X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1541-1338.1992.tb00400.x
Subject(s) - refugee , vietnamese , immigration , entrepreneurship , ethnic group , political science , economic growth , capital (architecture) , sample (material) , judaism , demographic economics , development economics , economics , geography , law , philosophy , linguistics , chemistry , archaeology , chromatography
Research concerning immigrant and ethnic business formation has focused almost exclusively upon the enterprises of economically motivated immigrants and long established refugees. Ignored are the businesses opened by recent refugees who, since 1975, account for 20% of the legal entrants to the United States. Because refugees have different social and demographic characteristics than economic immigrants and come to the U.S. for different reasons, they reveal distinct entrepreneurial behaviors. Relying on a sample of 67 Soviet Jewish and Vietnamese enterprises in California, this study explores the prospects for refugee self‐employment. It considers the characteristics of self‐employed refugees, their resources and motives for openingbusinesses, and their use of community‐based sources of capital, labor, customers and information.