Immigrant entrepreneurship and ethnic economies. Summaries and reviews of current debates

Abstract

This paper presents and discusses the main theoretical approaches that have been used to comprehend the new entrepreneurship created by immigrants in the process of insertion in host societies. These theoretical approaches are part of what has been named by the specialized literature as the “ethnic economy” theory. The paper will articulate the class and ethnic resources brought by the immigrants from the home society which are, in many cases, re-created in the host societies. It will also analyze the importance of the social, economic and institutional elements in the process of formation of these new entrepreneurship, reviewing the most important dimensions of the phenomena, and the approaches that have predominantly been used to explain it.