Immigrant Entrepreneurship, Institutional Discrimination, and Implications for Public Policy: A Case Study in Toronto

Carlos Teixeira, Lucia Lo and Marie Truelove
Additional contact information
Carlos Teixeira: Department of Geography, University of British Columbia—Okanagan, 3333 University Way, Kelowna, BC VIV 1V7, Canada
Lucia Lo: Department of Geography, York University, 4700 Keele Street, North York, ON M3J 1P3, Canada
Marie Truelove: Department of Geography, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, ON M5B 2K3, Canada

Environment and Planning C, 2007, vol. 25, issue 2, 176-193

Abstract: Immigration since World War 2 has been a primary engine of economic, social, and cultural change in Canada. Two of its important characteristics have been its ‘urban’ character and the non-European origins of immigrants since the 1960s. The Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) has been a major destination for those immigrants who have entered the self-employed sector of the economy in ever-larger numbers. The authors focus on the barriers and challenges experienced by the Polish, Portuguese, Caribbean, Korean, and Somali immigrants in the establishment and operation of their businesses in the Toronto CMA. With information collected through key-informant interviews, a questionnaire survey, and focus groups, it is found that, despite the Canadian commitment to multiculturalism at all levels of government, visible-minority entrepreneurs still confront more barriers in their business practice than do non-visible-minority entrepreneurs, with access to financing being a persistent problem. Given the increasingly multicultural nature of major Canadian cities and the acknowledged role of immigrants as an engine of economic growth, the authors identify barriers to entrepreneurship among immigrants as an area of clear concern both for policymakers and for scholars, and suggest solutions to address this concern.

Date: 2007
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/c18r (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envirc:v:25:y:2007:i:2:p:176-193

DOI: 10.1068/c18r

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Environment and Planning C
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().