School as an Entrepreneurial Enclave

Studies of ethnic entrepreneurship usually concentrate on the ethnic economy in the global north to argue the importance of structural and cultural factors. Based on previous studies and the author’s own work in Dongguan and Jakarta, this article explains how entrepreneurial culture of Taiwanese enterprises, often referred to as Taishang culture, is partially sustained and reproduced through the activities of two ethnic schools in these two cities. The overlapping membership of schools and Taishang chambers of commerce means that ethnic schools are also designed and operated to support the development of Taiwanese enterprises. These ethnic schools are not only institutions for educating Taiwanese children but also the de-facto ethnic enclave for consolidating and reproducing Taishang culture. The two schools also reflect differences in Taishang culture, which are shaped by how Taiwanese enterprises survive and thrive in different contexts.

Gerrard India Bazaar : an atypical ethnic economy in a residential neighbourhood

The purpose of this study is to examine the validity of the thesis that ethnic economies development from a co-ethnic residential context. This paper presents the Gerrard India Bazaar located at Gerrard Street East and Coxwell Ave. in Toronto, Ontario, as a South Asian ethnic economy that has developed into an ethnic commercial district without a corresponding coethnic neighbourhood. This paper explores the process and challenges that have accompanied the development of the Gerrard India Bazaar with the use of newspaper documentation on the area and business information from 1971, 1982, 1991, 1996 and 2009 MIGHTS Business Directory and 1976, 1986, 1996 and 2006 Census Data on the area. Findings from the research demonstrate that ethnic economics can be sustained without a co-ethnic neighborhood as long as there is co-occurring emergence of formal aspects of institutional completeness, accommodation to the residential environment and marketability to the mainstream market.

Gerrard India Bazaar : an atypical ethnic economy in a residential neighbourhood

The purpose of this study is to examine the validity of the thesis that ethnic economies development from a co-ethnic residential context. This paper presents the Gerrard India Bazaar located at Gerrard Street East and Coxwell Ave. in Toronto, Ontario, as a South Asian ethnic economy that has developed into an ethnic commercial district without a corresponding coethnic neighbourhood. This paper explores the process and challenges that have accompanied the development of the Gerrard India Bazaar with the use of newspaper documentation on the area and business information from 1971, 1982, 1991, 1996 and 2009 MIGHTS Business Directory and 1976, 1986, 1996 and 2006 Census Data on the area. Findings from the research demonstrate that ethnic economics can be sustained without a co-ethnic neighborhood as long as there is co-occurring emergence of formal aspects of institutional completeness, accommodation to the residential environment and marketability to the mainstream market.

Settlement Patterns of Korean Immigrants in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (DMA)

This paper focuses on settlement patterns of Korean immigrants in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) highlighting their high self-employment rate and active transnational activities. The objectives for the paper are to explore various causes of a high level of self-employment rate among Korean immigrants, and to examine settlement patterns of Korean immigrants in the Toronto CMA by reviewing their immigration data, employment income and self-employment income data, residential locations, ethnic economy and human capital, and to understand how their active transnational activities combined with the factors listed above affected their settlement and integration experiences in Canada as they are inter-connected with various social and economic fabrics of the Korean community in the Toronto CMA.

Gentrification of ethnic businesses in Toronto's Little India: an analysis of ethnic business development

Gentrification of ethnic businesses within ethnic economies is a new phenomenon that is vastly affecting Toronto’s Little India. As a result, research focusing on this issue and analysis on the way in which ethnic businesses have been developed is an important problem to investigate. This research will focus on three main research questions; observing the different looks, practices, styles, and tastes prevalent amongst restaurants in Little India, examining if the styles and tastes projected by restaurants’ ethnic habitus have an impact on how ethnic businesses fare, and assessing if entrepreneurs are able or unable to modify their business practices, and styles. The analysis will be conducted through the lens of the Habitus (Bourdieu, 1987) as a theoretical framework, specifically examining the ways in which self-employed migrants develop their businesses and the role that their ethnic background and culture may have in this process. This research will take an ethnographic methodological approach in conducting the research through two steps, beginning with a naturalistic observation of two restaurants and following up with interviews. The findings determined that slight changes made to the business approach and cultural habitus of ethnic businesses can prove successful in attracting the needs of the surrounding clientele and the gentrifying population. Keywords: gentrification, South Asian, Little India, ethnic economy, self-employed migrants

Settlement Patterns of Korean Immigrants in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (DMA)

This paper focuses on settlement patterns of Korean immigrants in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) highlighting their high self-employment rate and active transnational activities. The objectives for the paper are to explore various causes of a high level of self-employment rate among Korean immigrants, and to examine settlement patterns of Korean immigrants in the Toronto CMA by reviewing their immigration data, employment income and self-employment income data, residential locations, ethnic economy and human capital, and to understand how their active transnational activities combined with the factors listed above affected their settlement and integration experiences in Canada as they are inter-connected with various social and economic fabrics of the Korean community in the Toronto CMA.

Gentrification of ethnic businesses in Toronto's Little India: an analysis of ethnic business development

Gentrification of ethnic businesses within ethnic economies is a new phenomenon that is vastly affecting Toronto’s Little India. As a result, research focusing on this issue and analysis on the way in which ethnic businesses have been developed is an important problem to investigate. This research will focus on three main research questions; observing the different looks, practices, styles, and tastes prevalent amongst restaurants in Little India, examining if the styles and tastes projected by restaurants’ ethnic habitus have an impact on how ethnic businesses fare, and assessing if entrepreneurs are able or unable to modify their business practices, and styles. The analysis will be conducted through the lens of the Habitus (Bourdieu, 1987) as a theoretical framework, specifically examining the ways in which self-employed migrants develop their businesses and the role that their ethnic background and culture may have in this process. This research will take an ethnographic methodological approach in conducting the research through two steps, beginning with a naturalistic observation of two restaurants and following up with interviews. The findings determined that slight changes made to the business approach and cultural habitus of ethnic businesses can prove successful in attracting the needs of the surrounding clientele and the gentrifying population. Keywords: gentrification, South Asian, Little India, ethnic economy, self-employed migrants

Desire and confusion: A sociolinguistic ethnography on affect in the ethnic economy of Thai massage

In my contribution, I will look at the interconnections between language, work, ethnicity and gender in the exemplary site of the Thai massage studio as part of a larger sociolinguistic ethnography in Vienna, Austria. I argue that Thai massage therapists are trying to establish an independent and professional self, while being continuously repositioned along gendered and racial stereotypes based on post-colonial ideas of the “exotic woman”. In other words, their work empowers them on the local labour market, but simultaneously threatens to reinstall clear social and ethnical hierarchies. In order to unpack this complex, I propose to discuss two theoretical concepts from a critical sociolinguistic perspective: the ethnic economy and the affect of desire, as they both inform an understanding of Thai massage as a particular localised global practice. I will first discuss ambivalent opportunities related to language competences in the ethnic economy, and then turn to examine how male clients come to ascribe “confused affect” to their experience with desire in the Thai massage. Finally, I will discuss the issue of researcher positionality in dealing with the potential reproduction of exoticisation through research.