Vitali G., Filippi M., Manello A., Working Paper Cnr-Ceris, N° 14/2012

Further important evidence about the specialization
of ethnic groups in specific economic activities can
be derived from Bates (1999), regarding Asian
immigration in the US, but also from Sahin et al.
(2011) in the case of Germany. Aguileira (2009)
argues that an important issue could be the concept
of ethnic enclave, defined by Portes and Jensen
(1989) as a special network firm which is managed
by ethnic minority groups.
Finally, other geographical factor could influence
the localization choice of ethnic entrepreneurs:
Fairchild (2008) argues that racial discrimination is
correlated with the presence of minority’s
enterprises in urban areas, in US for the case of
black and white antagonism. Major interactions
between local context and a higher presence of ethic
entrepreneurship are highlighted in recent
contributions, in particular for what concerns US
metropolitan areas (Wang and Li, 2007).

3. SELF-EMPLOYMENT RATE
BY COUNTRY OF ORIGIN
Table 1 shows the links between population and
foreign entrepreneurships6: within the period 20042009 the foreign population7 growths by 80%, from
2.25 million to more than 4 millions. Some ethnic
groups8 growth more than the others: Romanians
and the other Eastern EU countries growth a lot,
6
Our study is based on the database ISTAT-ASIA (Archivio
Statistico delle imprese Attive). ASIA collects all the Italian
firms that produce a turnover at least six month per year, that
have at least one employee or self-employee. Within the period
2004 – 2009 some events affect the statistical data: new
provinces have been set up, there was a new classification of
economic activities, the EU has been enlarged to Romania and
other East-European countries.
7
The source of the population data at province level is
ISTAT DEMO database, that provides population but not its
age or gender. In our tables, the total of the foreign population
considers all the foreign countries, except Western EU (12),
USA and Canada, in order to be homogeneous with the non-EU
immigrant characteristics.
8
We elaborate the characteristics of the foreign entrepreneur
according to the information of its fiscal code, which reports the
gender, the date of birth, the country of birth. Other information
concerns the firm, such as its location (at municipality level and
even ZIP postal code), its sector of activity (ATECO 2007
code), its turnover (by class size), the number of employees.

more than 100%, thanks to the 2004 enlargement of
the EU. In 2009 the Rumanian community is the
strongest in Italy, with about 900 thousand of people
they represent the 22% of total foreign population,
followed by Albanians (11%) and Moroccans (11%).
Within the period, Romanians growth by 257%,
Polish by 108%, and Bangladesh population by
107%.
On average, the dynamics of micro firms is lower
than the dynamics of population, as the total number
of micro firms growth by 40%, from 113,000 to
160,000. The strongest ethnic groups, as far as the
number of micro firms is concerned, are the
Chinese, that represent the 17% of total foreign
micro firms, followed by Romanians (13%) and
Albanians (12%).
Within the different ethnic groups there are different
dynamics, as Russian firms growth by 147% and
Romanians by 130%.
If we compare the dynamics of population and the
dynamics of micro firms we find some countries that
increase the firms more than population: micro firms
from Albany increase by 80% and population by
47%, and from Russia the rates are 147% versus
107%.
On the contrary, the population growths more than
micro firms as far as Romania, Poland and
Bangladesh are concerned.
The distribution of the micro firms is affected by
some variables at local level, such as unemployment
rate, foreign population rate, and so on. These
variables have a different geographical distribution
in Italy, and therefore the foreign micro firms have
not a homogeneous distribution in the Italian regions
and provinces.
First of all, the distribution of foreign population and
foreign micro firms follows the level of the
economic development, with a strong presence in
the North of Italy: North-West represents the 35% of
population and micro firms, and in North-East the
rates are 27% and 25% accordingly. On the contrary,
South of Italy collects only 13% of population and
14% of micro firms.

7