Immigrant Entrepreneurs

Immigrant Entrepreneurs

‘Immigrant’ or ‘Ethnic’ entrepreneur as depicted by R.M Khosa, V. Kalitanyi
Are sojourners who work harder, save money, receive limited low cost funding from family member as well social networks and find market opportunities to set up their business in the host communities. R.M Khosa, V. Kalitanyi further puts forward that migration of people defined as the practise of people moving form their indigenous country to live and work in another country. People don’t just pack up leave their country; there are always external forces that influence the decision to migrate. J. Knight puts forward that people migrate because of economic opportunity or they are refugees. R. Luthra, L. Platt, J. Salamońska outlines that immigrants

Having a great impact on the economy makes up for bullying the uneducated South African trying to build something for their families? African Immigrants as well as Indians own majority of Spaza shops in South Africa. The problem in thesis pertains to the fact that South Africans lose business to immigrants through aggressive measure rather than fair business practise. According to Sustainable Livelihoods Foundation’s research paper ‘The Informal Economy of the Townships Spaza Shops’ For the longest time local Spaza shop owners had informal agreement that they would charge similar prices for certain products as to have fair competition. They competed on spatial location and not on price [R.M Khosa, V. Kalitanyi]. When there was an influx of non-local owned Spaza shops they drove their prices below the local owner’s agreed prices and planted their shops in directly next to the local’s shop or in close proximity. We have established that immigrants have access to discounts locals don’t. Local Spaza shop owners buy product as individual and usually add a twenty per cent mark up to a substantial mark up. These strategies are used to ‘drive competitors out of business’. A. Plastow states that the reason for the hostile take over is that locals/ lack management skills and business tact. He analysis is that it is the nature of doing business, the bigger guy who has access to tools that are

It is an established that immigrant workers are largely responsible for local’s decline in the Spaza shop market. Government should realise the immense impact this small market has, that local ownership is under attack and it should definitely develop programs to support locals to empower and engage with them. These Spaza shops have become bigger and more competitive. Spaza shops for both locals and immigrants are devices to survive in this economic climate where jobs are hard to come by. The status of it having a strong hold in the economy relies on the cooperation of both local and immigrants to work together and share