1. David McEvoy Liverpool John Moores University d.mcevoy@ljmu.ac.uk
Minority self-employment in the United Kingdom: temporal and spatial variation
David McEvoy
Liverpool John Moores University
“Explorations in Ethnic Geography”
Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting April 9, 2013
Los Angeles

2. Key Concept: Ethnic Entrepreneurial Transition
(Jones et al. Journal of Ethnic & Migration Studies 2012)
Immigrant minority sees its proportion self-employed increase over time then decline
Jones et al. apply concept to (Asian) Indians in Britain
Per cent
self-employed
Main explanation: British-born Indians use high educational attainments to enter professional work
This replaces parental self-employment in tough low-reward niches
e.g. retail, restaurants

3. Green line shows increase for UK-born Indians
My evidence is drawn from the Labour Force Survey (a UK government source) for 3 time periods over the last c. 12 years
Per cent
self-employed
Blue line shows continuation of Jones et al. downward trend for overall Indian group
Brown line shows this shadowed – at slightly higher level- by overseas born Indians
Green line shows increase for UK-born Indians
UK-born Indians shadow – at lower level- trend for UK-born White British – shown as dashed line

4. Only Chinese hint at conformity with entrepreneurial transition
Per cent self-employed by ethnic group and birthplace - with UK-born White British as reference category
Only Chinese hint at conformity with entrepreneurial transition
Other Whites parallel White British
Pakistanis show very high self-emp. – even for UK born
Bangladeshis increase for overseas-born – but very low for UK-born
Both Black groups have low self-emp.

5. Per cent self-employed by ethnic group – the regional picture - with England & Wales as reference category
For White British each region echoes the national trend, but at a somewhat different level – London has overall highest at both dates
For Indians most regions reflect national fall in self-employment – but at somewhat different rates

6. No consistent pattern for regional change relating to other ethnic groups
Bangladeshis are the extreme example – with per cent self-employed varying wildly from place to place
The chaos may come from small sample sizes for several groups in several regions – we await 2011 census data
So the ethnic entrepreneurial transition is an intriguing concept – but in UK it seems to apply clearly only to Indians
Jones et al. suggest their model may be a reference point for ‘non-conforming groups’ – are they just time-lagged, or on a different, perhaps culturally defined, path from Indians?
They also suggest that similar transitions may have applied to social mobility of Jews, Chinese and Japanese in USA- does the AAG concur?