News
Asia Programme - [04/10/2008]
The new entrepreneurs of Europe
The CIDOB Foundation, working in conjunction with Casa Asia and the Autonomous University of Barcelona, has held an international seminar that highlighted the important economic asset that Asian immigrant businesspeople represent, as well as the difficulties involved in their insertion into the social and economic fabric of countries such as Spain, Portugal, France, Italy and Greece.
One of the common characteristics of people arriving from countries such as China, Pakistan and India is their great entrepreneurial initiative, which leads to their becoming important generators of employment and economic agents, as well as turning into competitors with traditional businesspeople; this can lead to a danger of the former being perceived as a threat, and that they may as a consequence suffer from negative stereotyping.
The seminar's inaugural address highlighted public interest in the topic. Jesús Sanz, the Director General of Casa Asia, expressed the intention to carry out studies on Asian businesspeople both from within the institution that he heads and, on an international scale, through MedAsia, the Mediterranean network of centres and experts on the subject of Asia. Meanwhile, Oriol Amorós, the Secretary for Immigration of the Generalitat of Catalonia stressed the importance of ensuring access for immigrants to public services, and preventing their isolation, by guaranteeing the fulfilment of rights and responsibilities. Making particular reference to Chinese businesspeople, Amorós highlighted their qualitative importance in the cities, owing to their economic role, and the institutional loyalty they show in their desire to comply with regulations. He also stressed that the transnational element of immigrant communities should be taken into consideration, given that it represents a powerful link with their countries of origin. In this respect, Roser Clavell, Secretary for Foreign Affairs at the Generalitat of Catalonia, emphasised Catalonia's role as Europe’s southern gate, and the importance of Asian countries such as Japan, South Korea and India for the Generalitat, which is to introduce the foreign policy powers conferred by the new Statute of Catalonia.
After the opening address, the seminar's participants went on to examine the ways in which Asian businesspeople use their transnational networks to achieve capital, information and labour. These represent crucial supports for setting up businesses, while the second generations (who will have bicultural skills) will be able to make greater use of local resources and possibilities to establish alliances with autochthonous businesspeople (for example, by setting up consultancy firms in the areas of investment and trade with Asia). Also analysed was the role of the Asian businesswoman, a particularly important figure in the case of the Chinese community, and who on occasions resorts to the transnationalisation of reproductive tasks (sending children to China until they reach primary school age) to help the mother in developing her professional career.
A large part of the debates and addresses were focused on the subject of Chinese businesspeople. By adopting a comparative perspective, it could be seen that business initiatives represent, to a certain extent, a form of social and economic adaptation. Thus, the creation of real estate agencies and loans derives, in certain cases, from a difficulty in gaining access to these services from autochthonous companies. Meanwhile, the supposed hermeticism of the Chinese community was shown to be more of a social stigma resulting from the difficulties experienced by first-generation immigrants in linguistic communication. With a very balanced gender composition that prioritises the setting up of family businesses, cases such as those of Milan in Italy seem to indicate that ghettos are not being created in continental Europe such as the ones that exist in the USA. On this side of the Atlantic, it is more common to see the advent of areas of functional (and labour) concentration in places where the immigrant community does not necessarily reside. Also mentioned was the fact that investment in the destination country is a strategy that the Chinese community prefers to that of sending remittances back to the country of origin.
Another subject of interest in the seminar was the study of the economic activities of immigrant communities from southern Asia, and particularly the Sindhis, who come from Pakistan and India. They represent a clear example of the global businessperson, a paradigmatic case in Spain being that of Tenerife-based Ramchad Bhavnani; the most successful Asian businessman in the country, he began work with a family business, after which his profits grew to such an extent that he has become the second-largest shareholder in Bankinter. Meanwhile, the study of businesspeople arriving from southern Asia also highlighted the importance of paying greater attention to the innovative social and economic strategies that these communities develop. Even though such innovations run the risk of appearing to be a threat, it was stressed that they also possess an important potential in the areas of trade, urban development and job creation.
The seminar, which represented the closing event for the research study on the subject carried out by the Network of Research on Asian Communities in Spain (RICAE-CIDOB), also featured the participation of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, which encouraged the researchers and offered its support in the study of the multiple economic components of migrations - both from the point of view of the countries of destination (paying attention to the possibilities for business development and the integration of immigrant businesspeople into local associations) as well as from the viewpoint of the countries of origin, by studying (for example) the links between remittance sending and development.
