C L I P. Ethnic entrepreneurship. Case study: Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Network. Cities for Local Integration Policy. Click for contents

Transcription

1 Ethic etrepreeurship Case study: Amsterdam, the Netherlads Click for cotets Network C L I P Cities for Local Itegratio Policy Wyattville Road, Loughlistow, Dubli 18, Irelad. - Tel: (+353 1) Fax: / postmaster@eurofoud.europa.eu - website:

2 Cotets About CLIP 1 Itroductio 2 Profile of Amsterdam 3 Amsterdam s urba ecoomy 4 Profiles of ethic etrepreeurship 5 Policies, rules ad regulatios 6 Key challeges ad lessos for CLIP Bibliography List of persos iterviewed

3 About CLIP I 2006, the Cogress of Local ad Regioal Authorities of the Coucil of Europe, the city of Stuttgart ad the Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios (Eurofoud) formed the Europea etwork of cities for local itegratio policies, heceforth kow as CLIP. 1 This etwork comprises a steerig committee, a group of expert Europea research cetres ad a umber of Europea cities. I the followig two years, the cities of Viea ad Amsterdam joied the CLIP Steerig Committee. The etwork is also supported by the Committee of the Regios (CoR) ad the Coucil of Europea Muicipalities ad Regios (CEMR), ad has formed a partership with the Europea Network Agaist Racism (ENAR). Through the medium of separate city reports (case studies) ad workshops, the etwork eables local authorities to lear from each other ad to deliver a more effective itegratio policy. The uique character of the CLIP etwork is that it orgaises a shared learig process betwee the participatig cities ad betwee the cities ad a group of expert Europea research cetres, as well as betwee policymakers at local ad Europea level. The CLIP etwork curretly brigs together more tha 30 large ad medium-sized cities from all regios of Europe: Amsterdam (NL), Atwerp (BE), Arsberg (DE), Athes (EL), Barceloa (ES), Bologa (IT), Breda (NL), Budapest (HU), Copehage (DK), Dubli (IE), Frakfurt (DE), Helsiki (FI), Istabul (TR), İzmir (TR), Kirklees (UK), Liège (BE), Lisbo (PT), Luxembourg (LU), L Hospitalet (ES), Malmö (SE), Mataró (ES), Newport (UK), Prague (CZ), Strasbourg (FR), Stuttgart (DE), Sudsvall (SE), Talli (EE), Terrassa (ES), Turi (IT), Turku (FI), Valecia (ES), Viea (AT), Wolverhampto (UK), Wrocław (PL), Zagreb (HR), Zeytiburu (TR) ad Zürich (CH). The cities i the etwork are supported i their shared learig by a group of expert Europea research cetres i: Bamberg, Germay (Europea Forum for Migratio Studies, EFMS); Viea (Istitute for Urba ad Regioal Research, ISR); Amsterdam (Istitute for Migratio ad Ethic Studies, IMES); Turi (Iteratioal ad Europea Forum o Migratio Research, FIERI); Wrocław (Istitute of Iteratioal Studies); Swasea, Wales (Cetre for Migratio Policy Research, CMPR). There are four research modules i total. The first module was o housig segregatio, access to, quality ad affordability for migrats which has bee idetified as a major issue impactig o migrats itegratio ito their host society. The secod module examied equality ad diversity policies i relatio to employmet withi city admiistratios ad i the provisio of services. The focus of the third module was itercultural policies ad itergroup relatios. This fial module looks at ethic etrepreeurship. The case studies o ethic etrepreeurship were carried out i See also Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios,

4 Ethic etrepreeurship Ackowledgemets As a researcher at the Istitute for Migratio ad Ethic Studies of the Uiversity of Amsterdam, I am resposible for this report o Amsterdam. Together with our cotacts i the muicipality, Maria Visser ad Mustapha Laboui of the Departmet for Social Developmet, we gathered the ecessary data o Amsterdam for this report. As the list at the ed shows, may officials ivolved i muicipal policy cotributed to the report. They provided us with reports, statistics ad commets o the cocept versio of this report. I additio, represetatives from outside the muicipality the Chamber of Commerce; the employer orgaisatio, MKB Amsterdam; the workers uio, FNV; the Labour Ispectorate; start-up supportig agecies; ad several etrepreeurs were willig to provide us with iformatio. Fially, researchers from the Uiversity of Amsterdam ad the Free Uiversity of Amsterdam provided us with data. I wat to thak all those who have cooperated i providig iformatio, particularly Maria Visser ad Mustapha Laboui for coordiatig the search of data. We thak Josef Kohlbacher ad Aa Ludwiek for their commets o versio two of this report ad Aggie Augebroek, of the city of Amsterdam, for lookig at Chapter 5. The author remais completely resposible for the cotet ad the copyright of the report remais with Eurofoud. Aja va Heelsum, Amsterdam, July Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios, 2011

5 Itroductio 1 The fourth module of the CLIP project is about ethic etrepreeurship. It explores the developmet of ethic etrepreeurship ad reviews the role of policy itervetios i that process. It is motivated by the desire of muicipal, atioal ad Europea govermets ad o-govermetal istitutios to create a eviromet coducive to settig up ad developig small ad medium-sized eterprises (SMEs) i geeral ad ethic busiesses i particular. Followig the mixed embeddedess logic, as has bee explaied by Rath (2009), it is posited that various compoets of the urba ecoomy iteract to produce a complex but also dyamic ecological system, dramatically affectig the political ecoomy of cities ad, i so doig, etrepreeurial opportuities. The study therefore focuses o the emergece of ethic etrepreeurs i the sectors ad cities ivolved ad the role of govermetal ad o-govermetal regulatio i it. The basic research questios are: A. What are the characteristics of the urba ecoomy ad which opeigs have emerged i a umber of cities sice 1980? How has the political ecoomy of these cities evolved? More specifically, what has bee the developmet of the SME sector i geeral i terms of umbers of busiesses, volume of workforce, value of sales, variety of products ad market segmetatio, ad what has bee i) the spatial distributio, ii) the distributio over the various sectors of the urba ecoomy ad iii) the ethic, geder ad age compositio? B. What kid of profiles of ethic etrepreeurship ca be idetified? How does the emergece of ethic etrepreeurship fit ito the specific dyamics of the wider urba ecoomy? Which geeral ad specific barriers do ethic etrepreeurs ecouter ad what are their competitive advatages? What are the structural determiats of the observed treds? What are the employmet effects of ethic busiess? How may ad what quality of jobs have bee geerated o the local labour market? C. What policies have cities implemeted i geeral, ad i the ethic SME sector i particular, at the local level ad how have they shaped ethic miorities self-employmet trajectories? How have policy debates ad itervetios o (ethic) etrepreeurship iflueced the emergece of etrepreeurial opportuities real or discursive ad further developmet of ethic busiesses? What policies support access to employmet for migrats i ethic busiesses? As metioed above, some of the iformatio was gathered via a questioaire that was filled i by the represetative of the city usig iformatio from admiistratio colleagues. More iformatio was foud o the iteret ad i publicatios, but eve the, data o the above questios were ot sufficietly available, so additioal qualitative iformatio was gathered durig iterviews. There is a list of iterviewees at the ed of the report. 2 This sectio draws o the cocept paper of this CLIP module (see Rath, 2009). Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios,

6 2 Profile of Amsterdam Immigratio to Amsterdam is as old as the city itself. The proportio of foreig-bor atioals i Amsterdam was cosistetly about 30% of the total populatio i the 17th ad 18th ceturies. At the begiig of the 20th cetury, immigratio was at its lowest poit, but it icreased agai from 1960 owards. O 1 Jauary 2009 there were 177 atioalities i Amsterdam. I the atioal statistics, immigrats are couted i terms of their origi ad ot accordig to their atioality. The itetio is to also iclude the secod geeratio, ad therefore ot oly the coutry of birth of the perso themselves, but also the coutry of birth of the parets. A perso bor i the Netherlads but whose father (or mother) is bor somewhere else is couted as a member of the ethic group of the foreig paret. I the case of two differet foreig parets, the origi of the mother determies the ethic group. Table 1 shows the ethic compositio of Amsterdam o 1 Jauary 2009, based o origi. A cosequece of the attetio of policy o uderprivileged groups is that immigrats are divided ito Wester ad o-wester immigrats. The Wester immigrats are supposed to be uproblematic ad do ot eed support, while the o-wester oes may have some problems, either socio-ecoomically or culturally, ad do eed support. This logic ca have strage cosequeces, like categorisig Japaese as Wester ad the childre of Korea ad Dutch parets as o-wester. Table 1 shows that o 1 Jauary 2009, 50% of the Amsterdam populatio was Dutch. The other half of the populatio was a mixture of immigrats with a Wester (15%) ad o-wester origi (35%). Of the o-wester immigrats, 58% were first-geeratio immigrats ad 42% were secod-geeratio. Because of the same policy criterio, Suriamese, Atilleas, Turks ad Moroccas are early always part of the figures, while Idoesias (26,519), for istace, or Germas (16,969) are ot metioed separately, eve though they actually outumber Atilleas (11,559). Table 1: The policy-relevat ethic groups i Amsterdam, based o origi, as of 1 Jauary 2009 Ethic group Number % Suriamese 68,761 9% Atilleas 11,559 2% Turks 39,654 5% Moroccas 68,099 9% Other o-wester immigrats 74,686 10% Total o-wester immigratts 262,759 35% Wester immigrats 111,640 15% Autochthoous 381,948 50% Total 756,347 Source: O+S (2009a) ad a calculatio based o I recet years, the categories other o-wester immigrats ad Wester immigrats have bee growig, while the Dutch category is dimiishig (partly due to the fact that a mixed child is ot cosidered Dutch). I Chapter 3 we will show that the socio-ecoomic positio of o-wester immigrats is more problematic tha the positio of Dutch or Wester immigrats. 4 Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios, 2011

7 Amsterdam s urba ecoomy 3 Historical developmet of the urba ecoomy Geerally, the Dutch ecoomy has bee growig over the last 40 years, except for a few problematic periods, as show by Figure 1 o the developmet of the gross domestic project (GDP). Figure 1: Aual growth rate i GDP i the Netherlads betwee 1970 ad ,0 6,0 4,0 2,0 0,0-2, ,0-6,0 Source: CPB (2010), Netherlads Bureau for Ecoomic Aalysis ( There was still a lot of ecoomic activity i idustries i the 1960s ad the begiig of the 1970s i Amsterdam ad both the urba area ad the umber of ihabitats icreased. As we explaied i earlier CLIP reports, the availability of jobs requirig low qualificatios attracted guest labourers from Turkey ad Morocco. Quite a umber of ihabitats started to move from the old city districts to earby ew tows like Almere. Aroud the ed of the 1970s a lot of Amsterdam s former idustrial activity dimiished sharply or moved to areas aroud Amsterdam, like Zaastad, Dieme ad Ijmuide, ad the umber of uemployed icreased. I 1978 the city govermet decided that Amsterdam had to remai a city to live i ad ot just a city to work i. As Figure 1 shows, 1980 to 1982 was a period of ecoomic crisis. Amsterdam s ecoomy recovered after 1984 ad a ew type of ecoomic activity developed. Large ifrastructural projects took place, icludig a highway aroud the city ad the costructio of some routes straight through the city (towards the IJ tuel). Busiess regaied its full developmet potetial. The port of Amsterdam ad Schiphol Airport provided the city with a cetral positio i the Europea trasport etwork. The ecoomy got ew impetus from the developmet of the area aroud the south axis ad a mai trasportatio artery betwee the city ad the airport (which should act as a istigator of the urba ecoomy i the 21st cetury). A cocetratio of high-rise offices ad busiesses ear the A10 rig road developed, icludig Amstel Tower. The World Trade Cetre Amsterdam developed, as did the telecommuicatios-orieted Teleport Sloterdijk complex. Of the total workforce of over 400,000 people, about 10% were i the IT sector, but culture ad tourism also became more importat. Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios,

8 Ethic etrepreeurship Accordig to O+S (2009b 2 ), the mai characteristics of the urba ecoomy i the last 10 years are the followig. The period betwee 1996 ad 2008 was characterised by ecoomic growth. Betwee 1996 ad 2008, employmet grew faster i the metropolita regio of Amsterdam tha i Amsterdam itself (35% versus 32%) due to the successful developmet of Almere ad Haarlemmermeer. The service sector has developed eve further i the last few years ad domiates the ecoomy of the metropolita regio of Amsterdam. This sector icludes both commercial services (busiess ad fiacial) ad o-commercial services (govermet, educatio ad care). The icreasig importace of the service sector makes it difficult to realise growth i productivity. The Amsterdam Topstad website metios that Amsterdam is curretly the fifth most popular city i Europe i which to establish a compay after Lodo, Paris, Barceloa ad Madrid. This ratig is based o four iteratioal bechmarks, amely: the establishmet of ew iteratioal compaies bechmark (by Buck Cosultats Iteratioal), the appreciatio of the busiess climate bechmark (by Europea Cities Moitor), the ecoomic growth expectatio bechmark (by the Europea Regioal Prospects) ad the quality of life bechmark (by Mercer Quality of Livig). 3 The airport is earby ad easy to reach by trai ad Amsterdam s large harbour makes trasport of heavy goods easy. The developmet of fiacial ad service-related istitutios makes iteratioal trasfers easy, ad for employees the city is relatively clea ad full of caals ad parks ot domiated by traffic as much as Lodo, for istace. Havig said this, Amsterdam ad all competitors i Europe have suffered from the ecoomic crisis. Accordig to O+S (2009b): Towards the ed of 2008 there was a visible trasitio towards the recessio period that may last loger tha we have experieced before. Employmet i Amsterdam icreased most i recet years i the commercial services; this sector provided 24% of all jobs i Amsterdam i the begiig of Aother strikig pheomeo is the icrease of oe-perso busiesses i Amsterdam: 61% of the busiesses established i Amsterdam employ oly oe perso, compared to 51% i We fid oe-perso eterprises particularly i the followig sectors i Amsterdam: advice ad research, iformatio ad commuicatio, retail trade, buildig ad culture, sport ad recreatio. Firstly, this is a cosequece of the iovative type of compaies that remaied after older idustries closed. However, it is also a impact of the ecoomic crisis i that some formerly cotracted employees have started to work idepedetly, thereby icreasig the umber of oe-perso busiesses. This has happeed i particular i all kids of admiistrative, computer ad maagemet cosultacy jobs. I some cases it is actually hidde (part-time) uemploymet; very ofte the umber of worked hours has dimiished. Aother impact of the ecoomic crisis is that some small busiesses are operatig o problematic profit margis. The oly reaso why some shops do ot apply for bakruptcy is that the family lives below the miimum icome or a parter supplies the family icome. 2 3 O+S (2009b), De Staat va de Stad Amsterdam V, Chapter 5 o the ecoomy. 6 Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios, 2011

9 Case study: Amsterdam, the Netherlads Scarcity o the labour market i 2008 is oe of the factors that has hidered further growth of Amsterdam s ecoomy. The decreasig growth rate is a cosequece of the dimiishig advatages of agglomeratio. I the first quarter of 2009, isecurity domiated the ecoomic situatio. There are differet opiios about the relative sesitivity of Amsterdam ad the Amsterdam regio to ecoomic fluctuatios. Mai idustries ad services Half of the Dutch GDP is eared i services, a quarter i the sales of goods ad the rest ca be attributed to govermet as part of o-commercial services. Figure 2a shows the size of the sectors i the regio of Amsterdam ad Figure 2b shows the city of Amsterdam. The primary sector (agriculture, fishery ad miig) has dimiished o the whole i the last decades, but i Amsterdam (the regio) it was already egligible 50 years ago. The idustrial sector has sharply dimiished sice the begiig of the 1990s i Amsterdam i terms of the umber of jobs provided. Competitio with the low-icome coutries makes it impossible to keep may of the large Dutch idustries alive, though iovative small busiesses grow. O the other had, the importace of the service sector is growig. This developmet was already visible for a umber of decades but accelerated i the 1990s because of the emergece of commercial servicig. Figure 2a: Employmet per sector i the metropolita regio of Amsterdam, 1996 (light blue) ad 2008 (dark blue) 60% 50% 1996 = light blue 2008 = dark blue 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Primary Idustry Costructio Commercial services No-commercial services Figure 2b: Employmet per sector i the city of Amsterdam, 1996 (light blue) ad 2008 (dark blue) 60% 1996 = light blue 2008 = dark blue 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Idustry Costructio Commercial services Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios, 2011 No-commercial services 7

10 Ethic etrepreeurship To give a little bit more isight ito the curret situatio, we will shortly discuss a few of the mai ecoomic activities i Amsterdam, based o the website of the Statistical Office of Amsterdam. 4 The sea harbour i 2008, a total of 6,034 ships arrived i the harbour, icludig 117 cruise ships. Cargo ships carried a total of 82,952,000 toes of cargo, of which 51,566,000 toes was uloaded ad 24,246,000 was loaded. Schiphol Airport i 2008, 23,704,000 passegers arrived at Schiphol ad 23,688,000 departed; 835,107,000 kilos of cargo arrived ad 732,604,000 kilos was set through Schiphol; 15,624,000 kilos of post arrived, while 19,249,000 kilos of post was set. Tourism this sector provided 48,230 people with jobs i It saw a total of 8,310,000 stays at hotels, employig 8,104 people directly, with 23,666 jobs i other caterig idustries other tha hotels. Yacht harbours, tour orgaisatios ad other recreatio ad cultural activity operators also provide jobs. Shops about 12% of shoppers for o-daily products come from outside Amsterdam; higher percetages (up to 20%) are see i the orth ad south-east city districts, where parkig is easier. The creative idustry i 2009 there were a total of 12,214 creative establishmets i Amsterdam, providig jobs for 12,481 people. The umber has icreased rather fast i the last five years. For istace, the umber of people workig i media ad etertaimet was 11,857 i 2005 ad 14,005 i Creative services are growig with the creative idustry. Commercial services while there were 16,983 establishmets i 2005, there was a fast icrease to 23,453 establishmets i 2009, providig jobs to 112,976 people. IT there were 10,752 IT establishmets i 2009, i which 45,704 employees worked; 21,436 o IT cotet, 19,317 o services ad 4,951 o hardware. Size ad characteristics of workforce Amsterdam s workig-age populatio (15 to 65) cosists of 553,700 idividuals, of whom 405,100 make up the labour force (73%). Of the total labour force, 6% was uemployed o 1 Jauary The socio-ecoomic positio of the largest immigrat groups is cosiderably poorer tha the Dutch stadard. I 2008, uemploymet amog the Dutch was oly 3%. No-Wester immigrat groups showed at least 5% uemploymet, with Moroccas i the worst positio with 19% uemployed, while 10% of Suriamese ad Atilleas ad 16% of Turks were uemployed (provisioal data from O+S 2008). The mea icomes of o-wester immigrats were also cosiderably below the icomes of Wester immigrats ad the Dutch. This gap became wider betwee 1998 ad I 2007, 28% of the youg people i Amsterdam beloged to households that live o or below the poverty lie (miimum icome). The percetage of yougsters who grow up i a miimum-icome household is much higher amog o-wester groups tha the city s average of 28%. Yougsters with a Morocca backgroud have the highest possibility of livig i a miimum-icome family, amely 46%, while for the Dutch this is oly 13% (accordig to DWI 2009: Amsterdamse Armoedemoitor 2008 ). The results of the curret ecoomic crisis are ot yet visible i these 2008 data, but we kow that uemploymet was risig i 2009 ad From the available statistics, it is kow that people with lower or secodary educatio i particular will ecouter the effects of the crisis. They work i the sectors of idustry, costructio or busiess services where most job losses are expected Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios, 2011

11 Case study: Amsterdam, the Netherlads The educatioal level of first-geeratio o-wester immigrats is lower tha the Dutch level. First-geeratio Turks ad Moroccas i particular have traditioally worked i idustry, but with the disappearace of idustry, the umber of low-qualified jobs has goe dow. Of course there are still several possibilities for low-qualified jobs i the harbour, the airport, the trasport sector, hospitals ad the govermet sector, but compared to 20 years ago it has become more difficult for people without qualificatios that speak limited Dutch to remai active i the labour market. I Table 2 the total populatio, labour force ad workig ad o-workig populatio are broke dow for the mai ethic groups ad for geder. Table 2: The populatio of 15- to 64-year-olds, by ethic group ad geder, 2009 (x 1,000) Ethic group a. Total populatio years b. No-labour force c. Labour force d. Participatio rate (c/a) e. Workig f. Uemployed g. Uemploymet rate (f/c) Me ad wome Suriamese ad Atilleas % % Turks % % Moroccas % % Other o-wester immigrats % % Dutch % % Total % % Me Suriamese ad Atilleas % % Turks % % Moroccas % % Other o-wester immigrats % % Wester immigrats % % Dutch % % Total me % % Wome Suriamese ad Atilleas % % Turks % % Moroccas % % Other o-wester groups % % Wester immigrats % % Dutch % % Total wome % % Source: O+S (2009b) The data show that the participatio rate of the Dutch (79%) is higher tha for the immigrat groups. This is caused by the age distributio (larger umbers i the 15- to 25-year-old category amog immigrats ad the much lower umbers i the 45 to 65 category tha amog Dutch) ad the low participatio of Turkish ad Morocca wome. A secod coclusio from Table 2 is that the uemploymet rate of Dutch people is much lower tha amog immigrat groups. Thirdly, lookig at geder, uemploymet amog wome is higher tha amog me. While uemploymet amog Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios,

12 Ethic etrepreeurship autochthoous me is oly 2%, we fid uemploymet rates at 11% for Suriamese wome, 24% for Turkish wome ad 25% for Morocca wome. Not visible i the table is the fact that uemploymet is higher amog youg people (18 to 25) ad highest i the city districts of Geuzeveld-Slotermeer, Zuid Oost ad Bos e Lommer, where a cocetratio of youg o-wester immigrats live (O+S, 2009, p. 97). The lowest uemploymet figures are foud i the rich ad white city districts of Cetrum ad Zuideramstel. The reaso for the uemploymet is the mismatch betwee demad ad supply. There are 1,028 jobs for every Amsterdammer, compared to a figure of 946 outside the big cities, but there are ot eough low-qualified jobs. Twothirds of the uemployed group has a low educatioal level (O+S, 2009b, p. 98). Formal access to etrepreeurship Uder Dutch law, to start a busiess the applicat eeds to register i the Chamber of Commerce, showig valid idetity papers: a passport, a Dutch drivig licese, a Europea idetity paper or a Dutch foreiger documet. If a perso is already livig i the Netherlads, they will have a citize s service umber (sofiummer); if you do ot have oe, you caot eve ope a bak accout. A ew immigrat obtais a citize s service umber whe they register with the muicipal authorities (the Muicipal Persoal Records Database). The simplest legal form of a busiess is sole proprietor. For some legal forms, more documets are required, like a retal or frachise cotract. I some cases a diploma is required to set up as a certai type of professioal (protected titles of certai professioals). From most Europea ad some other coutries, you oly eed to obtai a apostil stamp o the diplomas, but for certai o-wester coutries, listed o the Chamber of Commerce (Kamer va Koophadel) website, the applicat will first have to legalise their diplomas before registerig as a professioal. To register i the tax system, oe has to fill i a statemet of iformatio by a ew busiess form (Opgaaf gegeves startede oderemers). The itake for the tax authorities is ow doe at the Chamber of Commerce at the same time. The tax authorities make a provisioal assessmet of the busiess ad decide which taxes ad how much the ew applicat will have to pay ad will provide the applicat with the ecessary registratio umbers (for example, a VAT umber). Busiesses may have to deal with four kids of taxes: Value added tax it is almost always compulsory for busiesses to charge cliets VAT. Icome tax if the Ilad Reveue cosiders the applicat to be a etrepreeur, he or she ca beefit from a umber of tax allowaces. They will the pay less icome tax. If they are a director/shareholder or ormal employee of a limited compay, they must be o a payroll. Wages ad salaries tax if the busiess employs staff, it will be liable to pay wage tax ad a payroll admiistratio must be set up. Corporatio tax if the busiess is a private compay with limited liability, it will be liable to pay corporatio tax. A etrepreeur will be dealig with two kids of isurace: persoal isurace (such as health isurace ad household cotets isurace) ad busiess isurace (such as isurace of ivetory ad stock). 10 Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios, 2011

13 Case study: Amsterdam, the Netherlads It is geerally ackowledged that the bureaucracy aroud startig a busiess is complicated i the Netherlads, both for Dutch etrepreeurs ad eve more so for immigrats. A short list of the permits eeded foud i all cities is o the website of the Chamber of Commerce. 5 For the trasport sector you either eed a permit to trasport goods for third persos o the road or a permit to trasport people o the road from the Natioal Foudatio for Iteratioal Road Trasport (Stichtig Natioale e Iteratioale Wegvervoer Orgaisatie). I the fiacial sector you eed to ask for a permit from the Fiacial Markets Authority (Autoriteit Fiaciële Markte). For a retail trade permit you eed to kow the local law o opeig hours (whe displayig goods outside there is a permit about the pavemet from the muicipality), ad to orgaise shoppig week promotio activities you eed a permit o the law o games of chace from the Chamber of Commerce. To sell o the street, you eed a street trades licece from the muicipality, ad to sell i a market you eed the market stad permit (stadplaatsverguig). For the costructio sector there are specific safety rules: the safety, health ad evirometal checklist for cotractors (Veiligheid, Gezodheid e Milieu Checklist Aaemers). For the hotel, restaurat ad café sector there are more permits ad regulatios tha for the other sectors: firstly, the exploitatio permit ad the alcohol licece, the the terrace permit ad the advertisemet permit. The muicipality also checks how much garbage you leave i public cotaiers: if it is more tha oe sack a day, you eed to become a member of a special garbage compay for busiesses. Ad of course there are labour ad hygiee laws. Besides the geeral laws ad permits, there are local permits ad evet permits. The employers associatio MKB Nederlad has published a study o local permits (MKB Nederlad, 2006) that cocludes that permits differ i all muicipalities, are overlappig ad sometimes uecessary ad that may of them should be abolished. The Muicipality of Amsterdam is also aware of the over-regulatio ad oe of its policy aims is the itet to make thigs simpler. Developmet of SMEs I lie with the developmet of the services sector, SMEs have icreased cosistetly durig the last 20 years, particularly i IT, busiess services ad creative jobs, as show above. They curretly form the largest part of the busiess sector i terms of size, ad as Figure 3a shows, 61.1% of the compaies have oly oe employee, while 25.5% have two to five employees (together 86.6%). Of course, this is oly true whe you cout the umber of establishmets (locatios) ad ot whe you cout the umber of employees. The 0.9% large compaies (100 or more employees) give jobs to 45% of the total employees. Oly 9.4% of the populatio that work i the busiess sector work i a oe-perso busiess ad about 20% work i a small compay with oe to five employees. 5 Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios,

14 Ethic etrepreeurship Figure 3a: Size classes, based o the umber of sectors (left) ad the umber of employees (right) o 1 Jauary % 6.5% 5.2% 0.9% 9.4% 11.1% 1 employee 2-5 employees 45.0% 5.7% 6-9 employees 25.5% employees 61.1% employees 19.8% 100 or more employees 9.1% Figure 3b: Sector classes, based o the umber sectors (left) ad umber of employees o 1 Jauary % 3.7% 0.1% 4.1% 2.8% 6.3% 22.1% agriculture ad fishig 32.8% idustry costructio third sector fourth sector 60.2% 67.7% Source: O+S (2009a) As Figure 3b shows, it is the tertiary sector (services) that is most importat, both for the umber of compaies/locatios (67.6%) ad i terms of the umber of employees (60.2%). The quaterary sector (govermet, public sector) follows with 22.1% of the compaies/locatios ad 32.8% of the employees. Spatial distributio of SMEs The spatial divisio of compaies of differet sizes is visible o the maps i Figure 4a (1999) ad Figure 4b (2009). The figures clearly show how larger compaies (red) dimiished ad smaller compaies (dark gree) icreased betwee 1999 ad Smaller compaies (oe to 45 employees) are situated more towards the outskirts of tow, while larger compaies were situated i the city cetre ad the souther districts, ad that cocetratio has oly become stroger. 12 Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios, 2011

15 Case study: Amsterdam, the Netherlads Figure 4a: Spatial divisio of compaies based o umber of employees i 1995 more tha 250 employees employees employees 1 45 employees Figure 4b: Spatial divisio of compaies based o umber of employees i 2009 more tha 250 employees employees employees 1 45 employees Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios,

16 4 Profiles of ethic etrepreeurship This sectio describes ad aalyses the developmet of ethic etrepreeurship ad the mai characteristics of these busiess operatios. Takig the abovemetioed dyamics of the urba ecoomy as a startig poit, how does the emergece of ethic etrepreeurship fit ito this picture? Which barriers do ethic etrepreeurs ecouter ad what are their competitive advatages? What are the structural determiats of the observed treds? This icludes the geeratio of a ivetory of the umber of etrepreeurs over the past 30 years, owership patters (broke dow by atioality ad/or ethic group, geder ad immigrat status) as well as their spatial ad sectoral distributio. Defiitio Who are we talkig about? We foud differet defiitios of ethic etrepreeurship outside the muicipal publicatios. The most commo oe, ad the oe we will use here, is that a ethic eterprise is a busiess ru by a first- or secodgeeratio o-wester (alochthoous) etrepreeur. The mai criterio is the place of birth of the ower of the busiess or their parets. I Chapter 5 we will also give the policy defiitio. Developmet of ethic etrepreeurship The muicipality does ot collect data o ethic etrepreeurship (if ecessary, it ca get iformatio from the Chamber of Commerce). The Chamber of Commerce registers the busiess with the birthplace of the etrepreeurs, but as we had o budget to buy this iformatio ( 2.50 per compay), we had to rely o other sources. The data that were available to us came from the followig studies: Regioal Survey o the Workig Populatio (Regioale Equête Beroepsbevolkig, REB); EIM (Ecoomisch Istituut Midde- e Kleibedrijf); ad a study from Rabobak, oe of the baks. From the first source, REB, we got iformatio o the types of labour cotract that workig idividuals have per ethic group. As Figure 5 shows, the percetage of idepedet workers plus co-workers i their compay is aroud 15% for the total populatio. Comparig ethic groups, Suriamese/Atilleas ad Moroccas have lower rates (aroud 10%), Dutch have somewhat higher rates ad Turks ad other Wester immigrats have much higher rates (aroud 18%) of idepedet workers (+ co-workers). Figure 5: Type of cotract of workig idividuals from differet ethic groups, 2009 Other o-wester immigrats Permaet cotract Turks Moroccas Temporary cotract Suriamese +Atilleas Wester immigrats Autochthoous Idepedet ad co-worker i oe s ow compay Cotract, but ukow what type of cotract Total 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Source: O+S Regioale Equête Beroepsbevolkig Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios, 2011

17 Case study: Amsterdam, the Netherlads From the secod source, EIM (2007), we fid figures comparig the umber of etrepreeurs i the four largest Dutch cities, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, De Haag ad Utrecht. Foreig etrepreeurship is cocetrated i the large cities because immigrats live there. Table 3 shows the developmet of the umber of etrepreeurs i the four largest Dutch cities from 1999 to Firstly, it shows that etrepreeurship i geeral is o the rise amog all groups from 44,800 to 50,900 i total i Amsterdam. Secodly, it shows that immigrat etrepreeurship grows faster tha Dutch etrepreeurship. Thirdly, it shows that the umber of o-wester immigrat etrepreeurs grows faster tha the umber of Wester immigrat etrepreeurs. Table 3: Number of etrepreeurs (x 1,000) per ethic group i the four big cities Dutch No-Wester immigrats Wester immigrats Total Amsterdam Rotterdam De Haag Utrecht Source: EIM (2007, p. 32) There are also differeces betwee the cities. I Amsterdam, Rotterdam ad De Haag, about oe i three of the etrepreeurs has a foreig origi. The importace of ethic etrepreeurs has icreased sice 1999 i these cities. I Utrecht, a bit less tha a quarter of the etrepreeurs are of foreig origi ad this has hardly chaged sice Most immigrat etrepreeurs i the four big cities are of o-wester origi ad are a first-geeratio immigrat. Smaller sectios are the secod-geeratio etrepreeurs of o-wester origi. I Table 4 we have distiguished betwee first ad secod geeratio. Table 4 shows that amog o-wester immigrat etrepreeurs, the secod geeratio grows faster tha the first geeratio. The etrepreeurs rate (umber of etrepreeurs per 1,000 persos i the workforce) shows cosiderable differeces betwee ethic groups ad betwee the four big cities. Amsterdammers have a higher etrepreeurs rate (95) tha the others ad Rotterdammers are the least etrepreeurial (60). Dutch ad secod-geeratio Wester immigrats are the most etrepreeurial, while o-wester immigrats of the secod geeratio remai behid. Table 4 shows the developmet from 1999 to 2004 i Amsterdam. Table 4: Etrepreeurs rate per ethic group (umber of etrepreeurs per 1,000 persos i the workforce per ethic group) i Amsterdam Dutch No-Wester immigrats, first geeratio No-Wester immigrats, secod geeratio Wester immigrats, first geeratio Wester immigrats, secod geeratio Total Source: EIM (2007, p. 32) Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios,

18 Ethic etrepreeurship The third source of data o ethic etrepreeurs comes from a study by Rabobak. The muicipality cooperates with Rabobak because it pays relatively a lot of attetio to small start-up busiesses. Accordig to Rabobak (2006): The umber of o-wester migrats with a busiess has icreased betwee 2003 ad 2006 by more tha 13%. That is more tha twice the average icrease of all Dutch etrepreeurs (6.5%) (2006). There are 10,430 etrepreeurs of o-wester origi i Amsterdam. That is almost oe i five etrepreeurs (18%) (2006). Popular sectors of idustry i Amsterdam are, amog other thigs, the food ad service idustry ad the taxi sector. I 2006 there were 452 o-wester taxi compaies that provide a total of 550 full-time jobs 23% of the total umber of jobs i the Amsterdam taxi sector. After lookig at these three studies, oe coclusio is quite clear: i a city that had a iflow of o-wester immigrats for 50 years, the umber of busiesses of o-wester immigrats is growig faster tha those of Dutch or Wester immigrats. Other cities with more recet immigratio ca expect a similar developmet amog their o-wester immigrats. Sectoral ad spatial distributio of ethic eterprises We have o iformatio o the distributio of ethic eterprises over the various sectors of the urba ecoomy i Amsterdam, but from the Moitor Nieuw Oderemerschap 2006 (EIM, 2007), a atioal study, we get some isight ito the sectors that immigrats choose geerally, as preseted i Figure 6. Two sectors are domiat for the first geeratio hotels, restaurats ad cafés; ad trade ad repair. For the secod geeratio, the domiat sectors are commercial services ad trade ad repair. Figure 6: Sector choices of o-wester immigrat etrepreeurs of the first geeratio ad secod geeratio i 2000 ad 2004 i the Netherlads First geeratio Other services Health, well-beig, care Public admiistratio/educatio Commercial services Fiacial istitutios Trasport, storage, commuicatio Hotel, restaurat, café Trade ad repair Costructio Miig, idustry, eergy Agriculture, fishig 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios, 2011

19 Case study: Amsterdam, the Netherlads Secod geeratio Other services Health, well-beig, care Public admiistratio/educatio Commercial services Fiacial istitutios Trasport, storage, commuicatio Hotel, restaurat, café Trade ad repair Costructio Miig, idustry, eergy Agriculture, fishig 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% Source: EIM (2007, p. 16) Regardig spatial distributio, the Moitor Nieuw Oderemerschap 2006 (EIM, 2007) is a atioal study, but some coclusios are also relevat for Amsterdam. EIM cocludes that ethic eterprises, just like the ethic groups they origiate from, are cocetrated i certai city districts ad eighbourhoods. Immigrats are more ofte cocetrated i disadvataged areas, as measured with the mea home value, which is lower i disadvataged areas (see Table 5). I the four big cities the spatial cocetratio of secod-geeratio Wester immigrats is rather similar to that of the Dutch. This is also true for first-geeratio Wester immigrats i Amsterdam. First-geeratio immigrat etrepreeurs i Rotterdam, De Haag ad Utrecht have established their busiesses more ofte i eighbourhoods with a low mea house value. This is more evidet for o-wester immigrats. The first-geeratio o-wester immigrat etrepreeurs are more cocetrated i disadvataged eighbourhoods tha the secod geeratio. Table 5: Spatial divisio of etrepreeurs by house value area ad ethic category i Amsterdam Mea house value (x 1,000) Total Dutch Source: EIM (2007, p. 35) First-geeratio o-wester immigrat Secodgeeratio o- Wester immigrat First-geeratio Wester immigrat Secodgeeratio Wester immigrat < > Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios,

20 Ethic etrepreeurship Reasos for etrepreeurship career, market ad competitio I this sectio we will ivestigate why people choose to become etrepreeurs, what market they cater for ad uder what kid of competitio. The reasos why immigrats i Amsterdam choose a career as etrepreeurs are ot oly of a purely commercial ature. There seems to be quite a few cases where frustratios with the labour market have led to the decisio to start a busiess. The first reaso we ecoutered amog the etrepreeurs was a simple commercial reaso: they had etrepreeurial iterests ad saw a market for somethig. Some already have commercial experiece i the family, some do ot. A secod reaso for choosig etrepreeurship as a career was foud amog people who were actually educated i other fields. After doig work below their educatioal level for some years, they decided that it would be more ejoyable to work idepedetly ad the searched for the most iterestig optio. Sometimes the etrepreeur thought that a certai characteristic from the coutry of origi could be a iterestig sellig poit, like food. Aother reaso for etrepreeurship was that people worked i a similar busiess for a boss ad thought that they could do this too ad maybe better. The Ethiopia restaurat ower we talked to had worked for 10 years i the kitche of a large Dutch restaurat ad had eough experiece to kow what he was startig ad had saved eough startig capital to do it. At the Service for Work ad Icome/Uemploymet Service (Diest Werk e Ikome/ Uitvoerigsistatie Werkeloosheids Voorzieig, DWI/UWV), the represetative told us that curretly a lot of uemployed youg people wat to start a busiess without ay clear pla or eve a etrepreeurial iterest. They do ot wat to work for a boss, ad for these potetial etrepreeurs startig a shop is ot viewed as a positive optio or is just imitative behaviour ad sometimes the oly way of gettig out of uemploymet beefit. The officials first try to fid out how serious the pla is ad help the youg people to thik through all cosequeces, but if they judge the pla is ot serious eough, a discouragemet route is chose. Someoe who starts a busiess without ay sese of etrepreeurship is likely to get ito trouble ad debt ad ed up i a worse situatio tha from where they started. Of course, the DWI/UWV ca oly stop people if they are receivig some kid of beefit, ad ot if they have saved or borrowed eough moey to maage the first six moths. Etrepreeurs always cater for a certai market. I the last 50 years we have see that ethic etrepreeurs took up several iche areas. A example i the 1960s was Italia ice cream sales, while i the 1970s Chiese/Idoesia restaurats were boomig, ad some years later pizzerias (first by a few Italias, but later by Turks) took off. All of these busiesses targeted Dutch cliets curious about o-dutch food. I the 1980s Amsterdam s groud floors ad cellars suddely filled up with sewig machies. Over a period of about 10 years, maily Turkish ad Pakistai busiessme developed a garmet idustry that could work cheaply ad quickly, producig fashio for departmet stores like C&A. Today ot a sigle oe remais due to measures to eforce the miimum wage ad eve cheaper productio methods i the low-icome coutries. At preset the commoly visible vetures of ethic etrepreeurs are restaurats ad shops, food stores, telephoe ad iteret shops, lauderettes, tailors, clothig stores ad clothig accessories stores, markets sellers, hairdressers, beauty salos, employmet agecies, bakeries ad butcheries. There is some tedecy to copy: i certai streets, oe successful Morocca bakery was copied five times, ad of course there were ot eough customers. They frequetly aimed primarily at their ow group as cliets, though this applies i particular to first-geeratio etrepreeurs. Nevertheless, there are some well-kow examples of vetures that have grow i this maer, like the supermarket Geko. Ethic etrepreeurs have umistakably cotributed to a broadeig of the professioal structure ad plurality of services (as, for istace, the retur of the tailor i the city) ad to a broadeig of the quatity of shops i may eighbourhoods. There are also the less visible compaies, like the oes workig i costructio ad cleaig. 18 Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios, 2011

21 Case study: Amsterdam, the Netherlads I recet years, the orietatio of ethic etrepreeurs seems to have broadeed. Iterestig developmets are the care etrepreeurs, legal ad fiacial service providers, computer compaies, social ad spiritual care workers, home advisors, etc. This is partly due to the secod geeratio comig forward with better traiig. Accordig to Karima Kourtit, researcher at the Free Uiversity of Amsterdam (Vrije Uiversiteit), most of the secod-geeratio Morocca etrepreeurs work i the moder iches of IT ad busiess service provisio. Sometimes they cosciously choose these kids of vetures to break out (i.e. ot aimed primarily at their ow ethic group). A ew developmet i Amsterdam is the rise of Turkish baks (see below). Figure 7: A Ethiopia etrepreeur sellig high-quality Ethiopia coffee Source: Folder Wijkecoomie Gemeete Amsterdam It is also iterestig that o-ethic vetures are becomig more aware of ethic cosumers ad eve actively aim at them because they realise that this is a iterestig ad growig target group. Oe ca thik of the three ivestmet fuds for Muslims that were itroduced o the Amsterdam Stock Market. McDoald s ad the supermarket chai Albert Heij are both busy with feasibility studies o halal-proof products to make this part of their maistream offerig, thereby elargig the target group of customers. Oe of the mai baks, ABN-AMRO, is tryig to coect to privileged Turks i associatio with the Turkish Yildiz bak. Ad the care isurace compay AGIS is aticipatig the itroductio of multicultural products, for istace extedig its isurace with special care i Turkey, Morocco ad Suriam, as well as products that take ote of specific traditios (for example, Ramada). Ethic etrepreeurs have several strategies to outperform their competitors. Oe is opeig i a ew sectio of the market, as happeed with the pizzeria busiesses. I the period that pizzerias became popular, there were ot a lot of foreig food restaurats, so the public foud pizzas iterestig ad ew. I the last 15 years the same has happeed with Ethiopia restaurats i Amsterdam, o a smaller scale but quite successfully. A strategy that we have already metioed is to focus o oe s ow ethic group. Halal butchers ad Afro hairdressers are examples of specific services that did ot exist before or that existig shops were ot good at providig. The grocery stores i immigrat eighbourhoods are without doubt popular amog Turks ad Moroccas, for istace, because they sell exactly the same olive oil that wome back i Turkish villages use ad because oe ca have a ice chat i oe s ow laguage with the shopkeeper. Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios,

22 Ethic etrepreeurship A third strategy is to produce cheaper tha the Dutch competitor. Extremely low salaries, log work hours ad sometimes hirig employees outside the official chaels made the tailor shops successful. The Morocca bakery opes o Sudays, whe its Dutch competitors are closed. Employmet coditios ad illegal practices Ethic etrepreeurs may employ a umber of workers. We have o iformatio o the actual size of the workforce employed by ethic etrepreeurs, but we estimate that it caot be very large. To start with, may compaies are oeperso busiesses. Secodly, there are quite a few that operate o the margi of survival with o employees other tha their wives that help for free or a ephew that is paid uofficially for a few hours a week. The employmet coditios for workers i these small ad less formalised ethic busiesses may ot be as good as amog larger established Dutch compaies. We have already metioed that ethic etrepreeurs ofte work more hours for miimal salaries ad do ot kow all the rules. But this does ot mea that the employmet coditios are always miserable i ethic eterprises. From our iterview with a represetative of the Labour Ispectorate (Arbeidsispectie), we get the impressio that ethic etrepreeurs are o less careful with the labour regulatios tha Dutch etrepreeurs, but they are less aware of the rules. The oes caught breakig the labour laws ofte do ot kow all the complicated rules about safety o the work floor, hygiee, work hours ad coditios, for istace. The Labour Ispectorate represetative thiks her task is to educate people about all these laws ad feels that it is easier to educate the immigrats tha the protestig Dutch, who fid it all uecessarily iterferig. I the immigrat compaies there is quite ofte a lack of awareess about safety or hygiee. She explaied how she helped a Pakistai import compay to make the obligatory risk aalysis whe workig with gas cotaiers ad foud a very cooperative parter because the compay ever realised how dagerous the gas was. The three problems she oticed i her work are lack of kowledge, ot seeig the advatage of professioalisatio/log-term ivestmets, ad also simply problems with writig. She remarked: They sometimes use stadards from their coutry of origi that are ot applicable here. I her opiio, abuse of employees (log work hours ad low pay) is ot specific to ethic compaies. She fids more Dutch employers abusig Poles tha Turks or Moroccas abusig their coutryme. Compared to other Europea coutries, it is rather difficult for etrepreeurs i the Netherlads to work illegally or to work with illegal employees. But there are sectors, like costructio, the hotel/restaurat/café sector, ad care i people s homes where at least part of the labour is ot reported. Accordig to the iterviewee from the Labour Ispectorate, this is ot more commo amog ethic etrepreeurs tha amog Dutch etrepreeurs; actually, the big employers of illegal Polish workers are Dutch bosses. There have bee campaigs to stop this, but as far as we kow these were ot targeted towards ethic busiesses i recet years. The campaigs reported i the ewspapers were directed at the flower fields ad greehouses just west of Amsterdam. O the other had, ethic etrepreeurs are sometimes uder pressure from family or commuity to take care of a ephew, cousi or coutryma who may be illegal. Secodly, they have such margial profits that it is impossible for them to hire someoe legally, so i case of illess they get ito serious problems. Dutch café owers solve this by hirig someoe officially for four hours a week ad payig the rest uder the couter, but ot all immigrat etrepreeurs kow this trick. 20 Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios, 2011

23 Case study: Amsterdam, the Netherlads Problems ad barriers of ethic etrepreeurs What are the typical problems that ethic etrepreeurs ecouter ad that are less commo amog Dutch etrepreeurs? EIM (2007, pp ) has compiled a complete list based o telephoe iterviews with 225 respodets i a atioal study ad summarises the followig barriers for ethic etrepreeurs. Low educatio ad lack of laguage proficiecy leads to a lack of basic kowledge. Limited preparatio the start-up is sometimes over-ethusiastic, without a developed busiess pla, ad gets ito trouble later, for istace with the tax services. Limited etwork formatio ad lack of opeess to etworks outside oe s ow laguage group. However, eve withi the laguage group there is ot a lot of orgaisatio. Limited opeess to iformatio ad advice, particularly from bureaucratic services. Askig for advice from the govermet is cosidered a weakess ad problems are solved i the family. Limited opeess to istitutios for etrepreeurial support, sometimes because they do ot kow about these istitutios, but sometimes because they fid them meddlesome. Oe-sided sector choice, easily accessible sectors (low ivestmet required), copyig each other ad choosig risky sectors. Difficulties with fiacig due to uderdeveloped busiess pla ad lack of a guaratee to get loas. Norms of coduct are based o formality ad trust, i.e. cliets that ca pay later, which leads to a uclear umber of suspect debtors ad a geeral lack of overview o the fiacial situatio. EIM remarks that the startig positio of the secod geeratio is better ad may of the above poits are less relevat for the secod geeratio. For more iformatio o how these problems affect the daily situatio of the etrepreeurs, see EIM (2007, p. 47 owards). Some of our iterviewees observed ad highlighted specific problems, like the represetative of the Labour Ispectorate (see above) who observed three problems that ethic etrepreeurs ecouter more tha Dutch oes: lack of kowledge, ot seeig the advatage of professioalisatio/log-term ivestmets ad problems with writig. Aother view of the mai problems that ethic etrepreeurs ecouter came from our iterview with the director of the Federatio of Dutch Workers Uios (Federatie Nederladse Vakvereigige, FNV) ad its idepedet worker with o staff departmet (Zelfstadige Zoder Persoeel, ZZP). She remarks that the problems are admiistrative, uderrepresetatio i the uios, hidde poverty, a iformatio level that is low ad o commuicatio through the usual chaels. We asked all CLIP cities to report specifically o problems with fiacial maagemet, marketig, rules ad regulatios as well as bureaucracy ad itermediary istitutios. We will examie these problems ow. Fiacial maagemet Ethic etrepreeurs ted to borrow more easily withi their ow etwork or family tha Dutch etrepreeurs do. This is ofte their startig poit, but it ca also be a cosequece of beig disappoited by istitutios ad baks. Oe of our iterviewees had worked as a advisor o etrepreeurship i a ethic associatio i the past. He developed busiess plas with at least 20 of his coutryme, cooperatig with STEW (see below ad the agecy for start-ups, ad the muicipal DWI. Eve though STEW siged off the busiess plas as adequate, as required by the Work ad Icome Service, ot a sigle etrepreeur could get the ecessary startig credit. The baks did t trust the etrepreeurs ad asked for more guaratees tha they could deliver. We heard, for istace, of two Ethiopias arrivig Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios,

24 Ethic etrepreeurship at a bak with a appoitmet, but gettig throw out immediately, which the Ethiopias took as outright discrimiatio. O the other had, we heard at the STEW office that some very uprofessioal people apply for bak loas with upractical ad risky plas, who speak limited Dutch, ad officials eve have reasos to throw some of them out. For Turkish etrepreeurs, the Turkish baks are a solutio sometimes because family property i the coutry of origi ca serve as a guaratee for the bak. We have ot maaged to fid out how importat it is for Muslim etrepreeurs that their borrowig takes place i the Islamic maer, that is, without payig iterest. There are several sources that metio the demad for Islamic borrowig is icreasig, 6 but either the Turkish baks i Amsterdam there are quite a few (Yapi Kredi Bak, Aadolubak, Demir Halk Bak, Akbak, Garati Bak, TEB, Işbak 7 ) or the Morocca oes (Attijariwafa Bak, Baque Cetrale Populaire ad Chaabi Bak, a daughter of Baque Populaire du Maroc, which opeed a brach i Amsterdam o 16 December 2009) seem to offer this service. As far as we kow, oly the Dutch Rabobak had a experimet with Islamic bakig i Utrecht. Turkish ad Morocca baks try to fid ivestors i Europe for ivestmets i Turkey ad Morocco. For a Turkish etrepreeur, the advatage seems clear. Beig able to use a accout i both coutries makes iteratioal trasactios much easier. However, the role the Turkish baks play for Turkish etrepreeurs i the Netherlads eeds further ivestigatio. Marketig Compaies usually have marketig strategies. We have o iformatio o the problems or barriers that ethic etrepreeurs ecouter with regard to their search for cosumers. What became quite clear from the iterviews is that may of them oly advertise themselves i their ow commuity by word of mouth. Ethic etrepreeurs are more active i iformal chaels ad less active with marketig campaigs or employers etworkig evets. Accordig to a researcher at the Departmet of Ecoomics of the Free Uiversity of Amsterdam, Karima Kourtit, this is also true for secod-geeratio Moroccas. Secod-geeratio Morocca compaies have improved compared to the first geeratio: they do ot oly look for Morocca cliets or oly for Morocca employees ad they are active i successful sectors such as busiess services. However, oe differece remais with Dutch compaies: the lack of membership i the usual etworks i the sector. Figure 8: A halal butcher Source: Folder Kasezoes Gemeete Amsterdam Yapi Kredi Bak, see Aadolubak, see Demir Halk Bak, see Akbak, see Garati Bak, see TEB, see ad Işbak, see 22 Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios, 2011

25 Case study: Amsterdam, the Netherlads Rules ad regulatios As we explaied i Chapter 3, the rules ad regulatios surroudig etrepreeurship are quite complicated ad ot every immigrat kows all the rules. Some etrepreeurs get their iformatio because stories go aroud i their commuity, like the story that oe of the restaurats was fied for employig people illegally. This startled the others ad they became much more careful ot to call i extra persos i the kitche o a busy Friday eveig. The start-up has to take tax regulatio, health ad safety regulatios, evirometal regulatio, labour regulatio ad plaig regulatio ito accout: the amout of rules seems edless. As the etrepreeur we iterviewed explaied, I have had busiesses i Hollad for the last 10 years, so I kow about terrace permit, sigboard permits, hygiee, etc., but after I opeed this shop I foud out about some ew istitutios. First a official came to check whether or ot I was playig music i the shop, sice I would have to pay copyright to BUMA STEMRA if customers could hear it ad just after that aother official tured up from some istitutio I had ever heard about. He came to check my scale, ad gave me a fie, because my scale did t have a sticker of a recogised office of correct measurig scales. It is really icredible what kid of thigs they check i this coutry. Bureaucracy ad itermediary istitutios Besides rules, there are istitutios that etrepreeurs have to cope with. Most kow that they eed to register i the Chamber of Commerce ad with the tax office, but where all the permits come from is ot clear to everyoe, ad as we saw, there are permits that people have ever heard of, which is also true for may of the istitutios. Probably the most feared istitutio is the tax office: if oe has a problem with them (ad this is ot cosidered to be completely i people s cotrol), you may have to pay back for years. Most etrepreeurs that we talked to do ot fill i the tax forms themselves but have a accoutat or admiistratio office do this, as it is cosidered too complicated. A istitutio that ca cause irritatio i the restaurat sector is the hygiee authority. They come uexpectedly ad look for uhygieic situatios everywhere. A restaurat ower told us, They checked o very strage places. I thought they were expectig a foreig restaurat to be dirty, ad they foud bacteria i the rubbers of the fridge door ad gave me a warig to clea the rubbers! Uios ad etworks Dutch etrepreeurs ofte operate together i a orgaised maer because it is ecessary to defed their iterest towards all kids of parties. Ethic etrepreeurs are ot as orgaised as the Dutch. There are two mai employer orgaisatios that cooperate closely: the Associatio of Dutch Etrepreeurs-Dutch Christia Employers Associatio (Vereigig Nederladse Oderemers,-Nederladse Christelijke Werkgeverscetrale, VNO-NCW) ad Medium ad Small Busiess Amsterdam (Midde e Klei Bedrijf, MKB). The VNO-NCW is the largest employer orgaisatio i the Netherlads. The compaies ad sector orgaisatios coected with VNO-NCW 115,000 compaies altogether represet 90% of the employmet i the Dutch market sector. VNO-NCW has a commo policy office for the small ad medium-sized compaies: MKB Nederlad. The associatios defed the iterests of etrepreeurs ad take part i the atioal egotiatios orga, the Social Ecoomic Coucil (Sociaal- Ecoomische Raad, SER), with the govermet ad workers uios. If you become a member, a lot of support is free. A example of the work of MKB Nederlad ca be foud i their report o local liceces (MKB Nederlad, 2006). The kids of liceses required i differet muicipalities are ivestigated ad simplificatios are suggested. MKB Amsterdam is a relatively white istitutio, but it is actively tryig to diversity i terms of geder, age ad migratio backgroud. Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios,

26 Ethic etrepreeurship Withi the FNV, there are two optios: to become a member of the ZZP or become a member of oe of the sector orgaisatios, for istace the retail trade sector associatios. 8 The ZZP offers iformatio ad advice, lower rates for isurace ad admiistrative services, free legal advice ad support, keeps members up to date with ews ad lobbies for people who work idepedetly. It supports the govermet i framig laws ad comes forward with creative solutios o, for istace, pregacy leave, disability i work ad pesios. For its members, ZZP offers: traiig o specific issues such as workig accordig to the rules of the safety, health ad evirometal checklist for cotractors, iteret sales, website costructios, digital presetatios; more geeral skills related to taxes, fixig rates, cotracts, etworkig ad acquisitio, presetatio techiques, egotiatig; idividual coachig FNV has 13,000 members i the ZZP sectio but a very limited umbers of immigrats. The level of uioisatio is lower amog immigrats tha amog the Dutch. The Turkish trade uio represetative for the FNV estimates that 13% of Turks are orgaised i his sector. The Dutch figure is 20%, while the Morocca figure is cosiderably lower. The situatio amog employers is eve worse. The represetative of the employer orgaisatio MKB Amsterdam tells us that oly 2% of its members are immigrats. MKB eeds to attract youg people, wome ad immigrats. Whe we asked our iterviewees why they are ot members of the uios, they reply that it is too expesive ad that they are ot sure what they would achieve by joiig. I may shoppig streets there are also shopkeepers associatios (Wikeliersvereigige). The chaces of ethic etrepreeurs becomig members of these are better because membership is based o persoal cotacts with the eighbourig shopkeepers. The Ethiopia shopkeeper we iterviewed was a member of the shopkeepers associatio i his street. Besides these Dutch istitutios, we foud etworks amog ethic etrepreeurs i their ow commuities, such as the Morocca Etrepreeurs Associatio (Marokkaase Oderemers Amsterdam, MON), 9 the Turkish etrepreeurs group AGIAD, the Chiese etrepreeurs Dragos Busiess Club ad The Other Busiessma, etc. Most of these etworks promote orgaisatio amog etrepreeurs i Amsterdam ad do ot ask for a cotributio, which makes them attractive ad i a way competitors of the uios. From our iterview with oe of the MON fouders, we uderstad that this etwork was set up because the Chamber of Commerce, the muicipality ad MKB wated cotacts with Morocca etrepreeurs. Withi a rather short period, the Morocca official, the workig at the STEW etrepreeur s support desk (paid for by the muicipality), set up a etwork. He phoed 120 etrepreeurs ad brought them together. This cooperatio was successful for three to four years. They orgaised iformatio meetigs ad broadeed their circles. Curretly the muicipal support ad therefore subsidies for hirig a evet space have stopped ad the umber of activities has goe dow, but as a etwork it is still highly effective: people kow each other ad they ad phoe each other for help ad to do busiess together. A Morocca accoutat has built up a eormous clietele because of this etwork. Accordig to the orgaiser, the output is tremedous, though officially there are o payig members ad registered visitors durig meetigs. The orgaiser stated that it is a problem that the MKB employer orgaisatio views MON as a competitor, but MKB did ot adjust to this ew group, so Moroccas do ot become members of MKB; they simply fid it too expesive Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios, 2011

27 Policies, rules ad regulatios 5 I this chapter we will describe the policies that we have foud o ethic etrepreeurship, or to be more precise, o small ad medium-sized busiesses, but with referece to ethic etrepreeurs. We first describe the ecoomic policies, the itegratio ad diversity policies, ad the we preset some cocrete examples of the policy implemetatio. Overall policy of Amsterdam Topstad ad the Ecoomic Affairs Departmet A importat programme of the Amsterdam muicipality from 2006 to 2010 was Amsterdam Topstad (Amsterdam Top City). 10 It is basically a programme with a future perspective o Amsterdam s iteratioal positio, domiated by ecoomic elemets, but icludig educatioal ad social elemets. This programme is relevat to immigrats sice it focuses o facilitatig expatriates ad buildig a ope ad hospitable city. Its other targets also idirectly poit at the iteratioal outlook of the city: developig top educatio at the Amstel River, facilitatig creative talets ad crossovers, optimisig the IT ifrastructure, stimulatig kowledge valorisatio ad etrepreeurship i the life scieces, developig a sustaiable city ad advertisig Amsterdam as a city for evets. The Ecoomic Affairs Departmet (EZ) website shows that beig iteratioally directed, stimulatig the kowledge idustry, stimulatig tourism ad beig supportive to etrepreeurs are importat topics. A iterestig ew developmet i 2010 was that Ecoomic Affairs Amsterdam lauched a Chiese-laguage website to attract Chiese etrepreeurs to settle i Amsterdam. 11 Sice Chia ad Idia are the ew ecoomic powers of the 21st cetury, the website is targeted at Chiese compaies lookig to establish a brach i Europe. A former alderma remarked, Chiese compaies provide a large share of employmet i the metropolita regio. Curretly there are about 60 Chiese compaies established i the Amsterdam regio. I am very pleased that we ca meet their eeds ad I hope this will create more jobs (traslated from the EZ website). The muicipality s policy is payig off. I 2009 it icreased the share of Chiese compaies withi the umber of ew foreig compaies to about 10%. The icrease cocered mostly Europea headquarters, compaies i marketig ad sales ad logistics ad trasportatio. Note that Amsterdam does ot traslate documets i immigrats laguage of origi, but it does for future immigrats. The EZ recetly published a policy paper o etrepreeurship, etitled the Oderemerschapsota (Kok, 2008). A few of the geeral goals metioed i this documet are: the urget eed to stimulate etrepreeurship i geeral ad to improve the etrepreeurial climate, but more specifically for techology start-ups ad fast growers; to do this withi the educatioal istitutios ad i cooperatio with the two uiversities ad colleges; stimulatig ad supportig start-ups is importat, but so is boostig competecies i existig etrepreeurs; takig care of the right fiacial possibilities for differet types of etrepreeurs; creatig more accommodatio for etrepreeurs i all stages of growth; dimiishig barriers for groups to icrease the start-up ratio of groups that ow lag behid, particularly people who start from uemploymet beefit, wome ad ethic groups; dimiishig barriers for high-quality immigrat etrepreeurs Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios,

28 Ethic etrepreeurship Overall policy o itegratio ad diversity A basic term that is importat i the muicipality s policy papers dealig with itegratio is diversity, defied as: all that makes people so differet from each other. 12 Ethic diversity is therefore the differeces betwee people that are related to differeces i ethic backgroud. Thik about differeces i the field of laguage, culture, etworks ad etrepreeurial spirit. Cooperatio ad the participatio of all i the commo project to be a Amsterdammer are stressed. The diversity ideology does ot lead to categorical policies o specific ethic groups, but it leads to geeric policies that are fully immigrat proof. Every policy proposal is checked regardig its suitability for immigrats ad adjusted if it would suit oly the Dutch. If immigrats do ot use certai services, they are ivestigated ad looked at from the immigrat s poit of view. So where do the ecoomic strategy ad the itegratio strategy come together? Firstly, we have ot foud a defiitio of a ethic eterprise i the muicipal documets, probably due to the fact that there are o policies o ethic eterprises as such: all etrepreeurial policies are geeric. The muicipality does ot moitor the developmet of ethic eterprises. Idirectly, there are policies that are useful for ethic eterprises, but directed towards specific target populatios, so the backgroud of the perso is the startig poit. First- ad secod-geeratio o-wester immigrats could be such a target populatio (based o the coutry of birth or the coutry of birth of the parets) because the o-wester immigrat may have a disadvataged positio o the labour market, while Dutch or Wester immigrats do ot eed extra support. The policy may also target disadvataged eighbourhoods. I that case, there is a higher chace that etrepreeurs of o-wester backgroud would use the measures idirectly. As we have already remarked i the CLIP housig study o Amsterdam, there seems to be somethig illogical goig o because the percetage of persos of o-wester origi is oe of the criteria to become a disadvataged eighbourhood (Va Heelsum, 2007). I the iformatio brochures that Amsterdam publishes, etrepreeurs i geeral are give attetio, but the examples ad pictures are largely about o-wester ethic etrepreeurs, so they are addressed, albeit idirectly. The followig aswers were give i the CLIP questioaire o the questio of what role ethic etrepreeurship plays i the overall strategy supportig the itegratio of immigrats. Diversity maagemet is defied as optimally usig all the differet talets of idividual employees, for provisio of services, profit ad or the results of the orgaisatios. 13 Itegratio is joiig ad participatig. Itegratio is a cocept that targets all Amsterdammers ad ot oly ewcomers from o-wester coutries or already settled immigrats who still eed to do the courses to become a full citize This iformatio is foud i the CLIP questioaire. 13 Traslated from Va Geffe (2007), Verschil moet er zij; de kritische succesfactore voor diversiteitsmaagemet. 14 Traslated from Gemeete Amsterdam (2003, p. 5), Erbij hore e meedoe. 26 Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios, 2011

29 Case study: Amsterdam, the Netherlads As the muicipality writes i the CLIP questioaire, Optimally utilisig chaces requires that the available talets are optimally exploited. Curretly this is ot the case, ad talets i relatio to ethic backgroud remai uder-utilised, but also i relatio to geder or hadicap. Focusig o talets requires a idividual approach ad ot a group approach. Every huma beig has a uique mix of characteristics ad talets that ca be expressed differetly by differet idividuals, ad ethic backgroud is oly oe of the relevat factors. But ethic backgroud ca i may cases be the basis for talets that ca be profitable for society as a whole, ecoomically, if the right coditios are created. These talets ca iclude: etrepreeurial spirit; the capacity to speak certai laguages; cotacts i the coutries of origi; kowledge of other cultures ad/or the skills that go with this; the ability to supply ew products or services. (Quoted from CLIP questioaire) Depressed eighbourhoods have received a lot of attetio lately. The eighbourhood approach has become importat i atioal policies ad certai eighbourhoods receive extra fuds from the atioal govermet because of social problems (Vogelaarwijke). This approach has led to more attetio beig placed o the importace of ecoomic activity i a eighbourhood: small busiesses provide employmet ad improve the liveliess of the streets. This has led to policies i which both the ecoomic ad the diversity departmets cooperate, with the city districts wieldig importat ifluece i the implemetatio. Accordig to the CLIP questioaire, the discussios cocerig the ecoomic chaces of ethic diversity focus i particular or eve exclusively o ethic etrepreeurship. Although we tried to fid out, it has ot become clear to what extet this is a actual target of Amsterdam ad if so of which departmet. The city officials metioed a study by Smallboe et al. (year is ot metioed) who show that besides etrepreeurship mechaisms there are other aspects of ethic diversity that ca cotribute to the ecoomic stregth of a city. The muicipality cites Smallboe et al., who distiguish the followig seve mechaisms as relevat: ethic diversity ca esure higher etrepreeurship rates because some ethic groups or people with aother cultural orietatio are more iclied to become etrepreeurs; ethic diversity ca be a source of more creativity ad iovatio; exploitig diaspora etworks ca offer access to ew sources ad markets; diversity of suppliers ca promote iovatio ad be a aswer to the diversity of services that cosumers wat; ethic diversity ca lead to ethically orieted evets ad activities ad as a result raise the attractiveess of tourism; a ethically differetiated society ca be a attractio for foreig ivestmets ad visitors/tourists; diversity o the shop floor ca esure cross-fertilisatio ad iovative processes, more coectio of orgaisatios with the chagig social structure ad a icrease of the participatio of miorities i the social process. Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios,

30 Ethic etrepreeurship EIM (2007) brigs back these seve mechaisms to three theoretical blocks of ecoomic chaces: the chace to get more ad better ethic etrepreeurship (ad as a result, possibly also a broadeig of the professioal structure, more multiform service ad a broader shop offer); the chace to pay more attetio to the advatages of ethic diversity o the shop floor (impact of diversity o iovatio ad creativity); the chace to develop more attractive cities by usig ethic diversity (usig marketig, ethic evets, maget fuctioig for tourists i city, etc.). As the muicipality official writes i the CLIP questioaire, i order to exploit these chaces, obstructios must be tackled. The two mai obstructios seem to be the existece of ifluetial old boys etworks, i which people from ethic groups get access with difficulty or ot at all, ad the limited access to bak credit ad veture capital for people from ethic groups. We tried to fid out several times, but ufortuately the officials did ot clarify how the EIM opportuities ad barriers have traslated ito policy ad if so, i which departmet these policies are implemeted. Summarisig, we otice geeral ad sometimes vague policy lies. Amsterdam has had a geeric etrepreeurship policy sice 2000; however, costat attetio is paid to the multicultural character of the city ad its ihabitats. There are 16 projects with certai target groups, ot directed specifically to ethic etrepreeurs, but most of them have bee writte from the poit of view that they should be suitable for immigrat etrepreeurs, takig the 50% immigrat populatio of Amsterdam ito accout. Thus, the etrepreeur cetres (Oderemershuize) have cosultats with differet cultural backgrouds (Ghaaia, Suriamese, Morocca ad Turkish), ad the opportuity areas (Kasezoes) are areas with a over-represetatio of o-wester immigrats ad micro credit is meat for people with limited fiacial resources. The departmets of Ecoomic Affairs ad of Social Developmet ited to fid ad remove ay specific obstacles for immigrat etrepreeurs. Deregulatio ad makig the rules simpler is part of this. Most of the iformatio that the muicipality publishes is formulated i a geeral maer, but pictures ad iterviews show ethic etrepreeurs more ofte tha Dutch. From Projects for start-ups o we will look i detail at the executio of cocrete projects, firstly focusig o start-up projects, the at projects for existig etrepreeurs ad the at projects that focus o eighbourhoods. First, though, we will see which actors are ivolved i this field. Mai actors The followig are the mai actors curretly ivolved i the policies that directly touch o ethic etrepreeurs. The Departmet of Ecoomic Affairs of the Muicipality of Amsterdam (Ecomomische Zake, EZ) this departmet was ivolved i the three policy areas we will discuss later: etrepreeur cetres; stimulatig etrepreeurs i eighbourhoods ad the allocatio of opportuity areas; ad providig micro credit. Departmet for Social Developmet of the Muicipality of Amsterdam (Diest Maatschappelijke Otwikkelig, DMO) this departmet houses the coordiator of the opportuity area policy, whose official job is to coect all those ivolved. Aother importat issue for DMO is to support etworks, amog them the etworks i eighbourhoods, which iclude migrat associatios ad shopkeepers. 28 Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios, 2011

31 Case study: Amsterdam, the Netherlads The Service for Work ad Icome of the Muicipality of Amsterdam (Diest Werk e Ikome, DWI) the uemployed, depedet o welfare beefit ad iterested i startig a compay, ca request startig capital at DWI as well as a additioal beefit for maiteace. Oe ca submit a applicatio for support durig a preparatio period. This is a route where the etrepreeur prepares themselves durig a year, keepig the uemploymet beefit ad with the support of exteral parters to become a idepedet etrepreeur. City districts (Stadsdele) these take care of the implemetatio of the opportuity areas ad of most of the liceces that deal with the locatio, like the licece to establish a busiess at a certai locatio (oly whe the purpose i the zoig pla is busiess), the permit to have a terrace i frot of a café or restaurat, the advertisemet permit (shop widow or sig board), etc. Shoppig street maagers (Wikelstraatmaagers) these ca be employed by the city district, though sometimes they are co-fuded by a housig compay or a project developer. I additio to these services withi the muicipality, there are temporary services istalled o a project basis, usually outsourced to compaies like the etrepreeur cetres or STEW, which we will discuss below whe we look at cocrete projects. There are also stable o-muicipal istitutios ad cooperatig parters relevat for etrepreeurs, such as the followig. Chamber of Commerce this is the startig poit, where a ew etrepreeur has to register the ame of their busiess. At the first visit it is possible to get iformatio ad advice, for istace o the differet legal forms. Sice 2009 it is o loger ecessary to register separately at the tax office, sice this is ow also doe at the Chamber of Commerce. The chamber the checks the locatio ad helps to make the profit calculatio required for the tax service. Besides registratio, the chamber s tasks iclude givig iformatio lectures ad courses, orgaisig etwork evets, cooperatig with cities, supportig iteratioalisatio ad helpig with sales or the closure of compaies. Geerally the chamber has oly oe large locatio i Amsterdam, beside the Cetral Statio, ad does ot outreach, but a completely ew ad uusual developmet is that oe official keeps a office at Oderemershuis Nieuw West. The employer orgaisatios VNO-NCW ad MKB Amsterdam. The FNV workers uio, particularly the ZZP office, CNV ad others, ad their sector orgaisatios. Networks of ethic etrepreeurs, such as MON, 15 Turkish etrepreeurs AGIAD, the Chiese etrepreeurs Dragos Busiess Club ad The Other Busiessma, etc. Projects for start-ups We will ow tur to policy executio ad thus cocrete projects. I this sectio we will focus o start-up support, fiacial support ad stimulatio of etrepreeurial careers, the examie professioalisatio projects for existig etrepreeurs, projects that focus o eighbourhoods ad other projects. I geeral, the executio of these policies takes place i istitutios that fuctio as parters of the muicipality. Some relevat iitiatives to support start-ups are icluded (ote that we caot list them all 16 ) For more iformatio o starter projects, see Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios,

32 Ethic etrepreeurship Etrepreeur cetres Etirely fiaced by the muicipality, four cetres for etrepreeurship were istalled i 2003 i four eighbourhoods with cocetratios of immigrats. They are meat to give advice o start-ups or o ay busiess matter after start-up, with a outreach approach ad easy accessibility. They were a supplemet to the existig Chamber of Commerce service. Oe of the reasos for this was that the disappearace of the obligatory geeral tradesma s diploma for every startig etrepreeur at the ed of the 1990s caused a rise i bakruptcies. Ethic etrepreeurs i particular started their ow busiesses without sufficiet preparatio. The four cetres employ busiess advisors who support ad coach the (re)starts of a busiess. As the represetative we talked to explaied, The coachig cosists of idividual busiess advice, makig a busiess pla, suggestig courses ad workshops, providig backgroud iformatio ad help i fidig suitable accommodatios ad fiacig. The advisor helps the etrepreeur through all the paperwork, calls other offices if ecessary, ad helps the etrepreeur avoid gettig lost i bureaucracy as much as possible. The itetio is be complete ad to have all the ecessary forms from other istitutios i oe office, icludig those from the Chamber of Commerce (official registratio of the busiess), the tax office (gettig the busiess tax ID), iformatio o all permits ad liceces, the stadardised forms for a busiess pla ad addresses of accoutats, the usual etworks ad associatios, etc. Sice more tha half of the Amsterdam residets have a immigrat backgroud, the muicipality cosiders it importat that the advisors reflect the populatio. Therefore, the south-east office employs a Ghaaia advisor i cotact with its Ghaaia commuity ad the office i Osdorp employs Morocca ad Turkish staff. Ghaaias from elsewhere i the city come to the south-east to fid this Ghaaia advisor. Besides providig persoal advice, etrepreeur cetres orgaise courses o acquisitio (two half-days), admiistratio (oe half-day), taxes (oe half-day), bookkeepig (six half-days), busiess pla (six half-days), import ad export (two half-days), marketig ad PR (three half-days), etworks (oe half-day), quick course bookkeepig (three half-days), fixig rates ad prices (oe half-day), time maagemet ad orgaisatio (two half-days) ad preparatio for startig a website (oe half-day). The etrepreeur cetres website provides a (limited) umber of advertisemets of busiess spaces i Amsterdam. STEW For 35 years, STEW 17 was a foudatio that supported the uemployed i fidig work, but sice 2007 it has become a idepedet compay, maily directed at supportig startig ad less successful etrepreeurs with a deprived backgroud by meas of iformatio ad courses. Curretly it is ot very differet from other commercial compaies i this field. Because STEW was a istitutio close to social work i the past ad still attracts govermet fuds, though ow commissioed, we discuss STEW here. At preset the DWI is oe of the larger providers of projects ad cliets for STEW. Cosequetly, the start-ups at STEW are usually ot experieced, ad a certai percetage has to be discouraged because they actually do ot have the right characteristics ad attitude to become etrepreeurs. STEW works with a tailor-made approach: it gives persoal attetio ad helps cliets work o their skills, while people ca also lear from each other i the group process durig traiig. From what the researcher could see, it is ot the fast ad successful startups i the commercial busiess sector that come to STEW. Its work seems to partly overlap with the Chamber of Commerce ad the etrepreeur cetres, except that STEW specialises i people who come from a welfare beefit situatio Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios, 2011

33 Case study: Amsterdam, the Netherlads STEW also judges busiess plas ad requests for micro credit, held the secretariat of MON for some years (paid for by the muicipality), trais refugees for the Uiversity Refugee Fud (Uiversitair Vluchtelige Fods) ad searches ad supports existig busiesses i the ext project that we will shortly metio, Reewig Affairs (Verieuwede Zake). The Art Affaire Amsterdam 18 The Art Affaire Amsterdam (De Kustzaak Amsterdam) project offers support to artists ad creative etrepreeurs i all phases of their busiess developmet, icludig short recommedatio routes but also a year-log route with accompayig traiig ad coachig. Artists that have bee established for some years ad who are ready to develop ew services or work o further professioalisatio ca take part. New Busiess Activity Amsterdam 19 The geeral aim of the New Busiess Activity Amsterdam (Nieuwe bedrijvigheid Amsterdam) project is to provide professioal recommedatios ad a etwork for iovative youg compaies. It is the largest atioal etwork for iovative etrepreeurs. It ca provide up to 14 days recommedatio for thigs like attractig fiacig, protectio of products ad services, researchig strategic cooperatio parters, commissioig customers ad legal questios. Their recommedatios are subsidised two-thirds of the costs are recoupable. Stadia 20 The geeral aim of Stadia is the ecoomic stimulatio of small-scale etrepreeurship, particularly social ad cultural etrepreeurship, ad the realisatio of shared premises ad small-scale compay space. Besides coachig start-ups, fiacial arragemets ad assistace for examiig the possibility of startig a busiess from welfare beefit have bee developed for etrepreeurs. These are geeric measures, but they ofte have the specific situatio of immigrat etrepreeurs ad their difficulty i gettig fiaces i mid. Ay startig etrepreeur has to try the regular bak loas first. Rabobak is metioed by iterviewees as the friedliest to small etrepreeurs. Amsterdam the has several ways of helpig people who ca prove that they caot maage to get regular bak loas. The EZ website lists eight categories: micro credit; subsidies for etrepreeurs i opportuity areas (as we will explai below); supportig measures that icrease the safety of etrepreeurs; extra possibilities for small ad medium-sized busiesses for guaratee (garatstellig); startig a busiess from social beefit; subsidies for employers; subsidies for iovative compaies; subsidies for electric cars Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios,

34 Ethic etrepreeurship The followig list provides some of the possibilities for micro credit. Garatiefod Microkrediete Amsterdam a micro credit fud for people who started less tha five years ago ( 5,000 35,000), formerly Starter Fud Amsterdam (Startersfods Amsterdam). Startersfods Zuidoost (a starter fud for the south-east city district) 5,000 25,000 credit is provided alog with a experieced coach. HadsO Microkrediet a orgaisatio for start-ups with a low icome (maximum 25,000 aually), maximum credit 5,000, accompaied with coachig by a experieced etrepreeur. Qredits a atioal fud for starters ad established etrepreeurs, maximum 35,000, tailor-made approach with professioal coachig. Waarderigssubsdies (appreciatio subsidies) these are occasioally give to special etwork meetigs, for istace start-up subsidies for Turkish ad Morocca busiess etworks, ad/or a prize is awarded for a special target group, such as The Black Busiesswoma of the Year. Project Suikeroom a participatio fud for (youg) etrepreeurs of migrat origi with growth potetial. They are liked to a experieced etrepreeur who supports them with moey ( 25, ,000) ad expertise. Oly the last oe targets customers with a migrat origi aloe, but the south-east city district s starter fud deals with a larger umber of ethic etrepreeurs because of the larger presece of ethic miorities i this district. It is also possible to start a busiess from social beefit with the support of the muicipality s work ad icome service: The DWI/UWV may support a start-up with welfare beefit for a period of six moths to cover the first phase ad get started. DWI requires a thorough busiess pla ad coachig by STEW. After this is grated, the uemployed perso is ot allowed to apply for jobs. Startfoudatio, a fud for the most vulerable groups (disabled, ex-detaiees, log-term uemployed, ex-psychiatric patiets ad certai groups of yougsters), ca help with a maximum of 25,000 for a uemployed perso who starts a busiess ad who is supervised i the process. Besides start-up support ad fiacial support measures, there are also stimulatio projects, meat to icrease yougsters iterest i etrepreeurship. Lectures o professios ad career guidace are give i secodary schools, for istace by the represetative of MKB Amsterdam to explai what the job of etrepreeur ecompasses. There are complete busiess projects for studets, i which they go through the whole process from idea, to marketig, to sellig, to makig a profit. We foud a few projects to stimulate childre ad studets i the Oderemersota (Kok, 2008): the Cooperatio of Amsterdam Schools for Etrepreeurship stimulates youth ad studets to udertake etrepreeurial activities durig their studies; the Awards programme gives a prize for good ideas; the Dutch etrepreeur s week. 32 Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios, 2011

35 Case study: Amsterdam, the Netherlads Aother example is the etrepreeurs game Oderemershart Scholiere i primary schools. A experieced etrepreeur goes to a school four times for two to three hours, ad a elemet of busiess maagemet (for example, fiaces, productio ad marketig) is a cetral theme of the visit. It is ru by EZ i cooperatio with DMO ad primary schools (Kok, 2008, p. 34). The schools for professioal educatio have possibilities for appreticeships. Sometimes the schools provide cotacts with larger compaies, but studets ca also search for a busiess where they wat to practise. Sice about two-thirds of the teeagers i Amsterdam are from a immigrat backgroud (O+S, 2009a), some prefer to do their appreticeship i a busiess i their ow ethic group. However, i oe iterview, the etrepreeur did ot kow about this possibility ad at first thought that the rules were too complicated. But oe studet pursued her idea to do her appreticeship of a MBO school at his compay ad maaged to make the arragemet betwee the ethic busiess ad her school. I the ed it solved the shopkeeper s problem of ever beig able to leave his shop aloe. The studet was very happy with the appreticeship, sice she was itroduced to early all aspects of keepig a small busiess. The lack of kowledge about this possibility is probably ot exceptioal. Projects for existig etrepreeurs Amsterdam thiks that stimulatig existig etrepreeurs to develop professioally ad to improve their fuctioig is at least as importat for the ecoomy as fidig potetial ew etrepreeurs. A project that reaches a lot of ethic etrepreeurs is Reewig Affairs. This is a project that supports established etrepreeurs to optimise their fuctioig ad maagemet ad to solve all problems that small shopkeepers ecouter i the wester city districts. Parts of the project are executed by STEW ad parts are delivered by Bureau Koers Nieuw West. The STEW project worker tries to visit all shops i the targeted city districts to fid out if ay support is eeded, if rights are ot beig eacted or if improvemets are possible with someoe s help. The experiece shows that it takes time to gai trust amog the immigrat shopkeepers. They are usually ot i cotact with the ormal support istitutios ad are ot immediately coviced that they eed support, but after visitig them a few times i less busy momets, some of the problems become clear from serious issues like poor profits or the eed for reovatio to the less serious, such as a uattractive shop widow or beig tied to the shop ad havig o time to get supplies. Usually the shopkeepers are sigle owers ad have o time to take courses; they work log hours, icludig the weeked. They do ot kow that they ca reovate the shop frot with a subsidy from the city district or that they could get a cheap iter from oe of the earby schools to replace them ow ad the. With the persoal cotact ad support from the project bureau, it is ofte possible to make a busiess more successful. STEW ca give the followig support: 21 ivestigate the fiacial positio of the compay, lookig for the vulerable spots i the operatioal maagemet ad searchig for solutios; request fiacig (STEW maitais cotact with baks ad fuds for micro credit); promotio ad publicity suggestios; 21 Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios,

36 Ethic etrepreeurship test whether the compay offerig still fits the wishes of the cliets; develop sales skills; give advice o display ad shop desig. I additio to providig Reewig Affairs, Amsterdam also attempts to make thigs easier for busiesspeople. The Muicipality of Amsterdam s EZ website provides a page with busiess locatios for all etrepreeurs: It is divided ito the followig sectios: project locatios (ewly built), buildig locatios, small locatios, big locatios ad hotel locatios. The sectio o small locatios most of them retals has the followig subsectios: A search scree that helps users to easily search i oe of the mai commercial websites ( but selectig, for istace, hotel/restaurats/café spaces, creative space, office space, offices for medical professios, etc. A lik to Projectotwikkeligoderemig Kleischalig Vastgoed Amsterdam, KVA, a developer of small-scale real estate. This orgaisatio offers two former school buildigs (Het Sieraad ad De Timoresschool) that have bee trasformed ito multi-project spaces, with small spaces (15 m² ad more). A lik to Start Well Amsterdam (Startgoedamsterdam), a partership betwee housig corporatio Eige Haard, Ligotto Real Estate ad the Departmet of Ecoomic Affairs Amsterdam, offerig locatios of less tha 100 m². At the time we saw the website, there were three locatios with uits from 15 m² ad more. A lik to De Amsterdam Compagie N.V., a compay that creates bedrijfsverzamelgebouwe, multi-busiess buildigs i Amsterdam that usually have about 40 small-scale office spaces per buildig, from 18 m² to 150 m². It works like a broker s website ad curretly has 30 spaces o offer. By coicidece, oe of the etrepreeurs we iterviewed was searchig for a ew space durig the fieldwork of this project, so we asked him how he tried to fid a ew retal. Iterestigly, he took a differet route. Firstly, he was ot aware of the muicipal website. He first talked to the housig corporatio that reted him his former place but who was puttig him out because of reovatio plas. After they offered him somethig that proved usuitable, he wet to the street maager, whom he kew persoally, ad looked i local ewspapers ad o the atioal broker s website. 22 As this report was beig writte, he had moved to a ew locatio, which he foud via his housig corporatio. We checked a few Amsterdam housig corporatio websites ad foud that they offer some busiess spaces o the groud floors of apartmet buildigs usually meat for shops or medical offices. Actually the locatios that we foud through the housig corporatios website seem more suitable for ethic etrepreeurs (cheap ad with cotrolled coditios so that abuse is less probable) tha the oes we foud through the search systems o the muicipal website. As we have see i CLIP module oe o housig, the Amsterdam real estate market is domiated by housig corporatios, so it is logical that these also ret out busiess locatios o the groud floors of their buildigs Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios, 2011

37 Case study: Amsterdam, the Netherlads Figure 9: Four immigrat busiesses i a ew complex i Amsterdam Zuid-Oost Photo: Aja va Heelsum Besides supplyig iformatio, the muicipality also supports etwork formatio. As we have said, immigrat busiesses are ot as well coected to professioal etworks as Dutch etrepreeurs. The DMO has actively supported the formatio of etworks by payig a official to establish MON, which we have metioed several times. Projects that focus o eighbourhoods or zoes Stimulated by the atioal policy o eighbourhoods, EZ, the employer orgaisatio MKB ad Rabobak orgaised a commo backgroud study that resulted i the De kracht va de Wijk by Aalders et al. (2008). Aalders et al. (2008, p. 39) show that a higher percetage of etrepreeurs i ecoomically depressed eighbourhoods are of immigrat origi (33% i Bos ad Lommer ad 36% i Idische Buurt ad Trasvaal) tha i o-depressed eighbourhoods (like De Pijp). It tured out that the o-wester etrepreeurs they iterviewed were more attached to their eighbourhoods ad less iclied to move out tha Wester or Dutch etrepreeurs. O the other had, Dutch etrepreeurs more easily ivest i the reovatio of their establishmet, partly because of their higher margis of profit, but this meas that there is more ivestmet i the buildigs i the ecoomically o-depressed eighbourhood De Pijp tha i a ecoomically depressed eighbourhood such as Idische Buurt ad Trasvaal (Aalders et al. 2008, p. 42). This causes a circular effect: because the eighbourhood does t look as good as the other oe, it is less attractive for cliets to shop i, busiess is less successful ad less ivestmet takes place. After this study, the determiatio to ivest, particularly ito the ecoomic activities of small ad medium sized-busiesses i specific eighbourhoods, became stroger. After this first ivestigatio, opportuity areas were assiged i depressed eighbourhoods as a result. Thus, i the Basic Programme for the Amsterdam Ecoomy (Basis Programma Ecoomie Amsterdam ), oe of the policy areas is to set up opportuity areas. 23 A ecoomic opportuity area is a precisely defied umber of streets where the eighbourhood ecoomy will receive a extra impulse. The mai poit is to improve the public space. Whe shops ad busiesses i a eighbourhood look more attractive, the eighbourhood becomes a better place to live ad a icer place to visit. This works positively for the etrepreeurs, who get more cliets. Thus, a mix of measures is take, icludig ivestmet ( Ivestmet Regulatio for 23 Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios,

38 Ethic etrepreeurship Etrepreeurs i Opportuity Areas ), the establishmet of etrepreeur associatios ad the creatio of ew buildigs or premises for etrepreeurs. Of course, this kid of zoig policy has its drawbacks. It was oly possible through a specific law o measures related to metropolita problems, the Rotterdam-Wet of 22 December 2005, sice stimulatig etrepreeurs i oe street creates ufair competitio for the oes i the ext street. Opportuity areas were copied from Rotterdam, though the emphasis i Rotterdam was more o log-term job creatio i depressed areas ad less o improvig the public space. Yet the experiece i Rotterdam showed that a subsidy regulatio is a effective istrumet to stimulate depressed eighbourhoods (for the descriptio of the project i Rotterdam, see Europea Commissio, 2008, p. 84). The procedure to implemet the zoig was slow. The pla had bee determied i 2007 by the coucil. The city ad city districts would strive for the itroductio of at least two or three opportuity areas i the autum of The mayor ad alderme would make the decisio o where a opportuity area would be established ad the amout of subsidy that would be available based o the results aimed for. The city district s authorities execute the actual implemetatio because they have the most isight ito the local situatio i the opportuity area ad they are commoly the first poit of cotact for etrepreeurs i the area, which helps to cut admiistrative costs. The applicatio forms ad procedure are as simple as possible ad the forms are the same i all city districts. The city district s implemetatio pla cotais a aalysis of the area i questio ad idicates which ecoomic developmet the area will aim for ad for how log it will be a opportuity area (maximum four years). The pla gives a overall idicatio of the umber of etrepreeurs/owers i the area for whom a subsidy applicatio could be attractive. The ivestmet regulatio is meat for small ad medium etrepreeurs ad real estate owers to support ivestmets i ew ad reovated real estate ad i fixed assets that would ot take place without it ad that cotribute to the etrepreeurship ad the liveability i the eighbourhood. For istace, a ru-dow street with a block of 10 shops gets the chace to improve the facades of the shops. This makes the shops more attractive for customers, but at the same time turs the street ito a better eviromet where the public ejoys beig ad dirt ad graffiti are removed faster. The primary aim is stimulatig ivestmets, but loger term, the regulatio aims at stimulatig etrepreeurship ad stregtheig the ecoomic structure i a district. Figure 10 shows which areas were chose for developmet i the Geuzeveld-Slotermeer city district. Note that compared to the Zeeburg city district, this district has chose a rather limited area. Figure 10: Kasezoe (i red), the opportuity area i the Geuzeveld-Slotermeer city district Source: Folder Kasezoe Geuzeveld-Slotermeer 36 Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios, 2011

39 Case study: Amsterdam, the Netherlads Besides this zoig policy, a secod activity that the muicipality develops at the eighbourhood level or eve more locally is the establishmet of street maagers (Straatmaagers) i ru-dow streets ad areas of Amsterdam. A street maager tries to coordiate the improvemet of a cetral street i a eighbourhood by supportig reovatio, tryig to establish a lie of attractive shops ad elimiatig less attractive shops ad improvig the geeral look (pavemet, trees). The street maager develops a clear profile for the street that has its roots i what is happeig i the eighbourhood. He works i cooperatio with the muicipality, housig associatios ad shopkeeper associatios. The example of Czaar Peterstraat shows that a street that was extremely uattractive, usafe ad full of drug addicts 10 years ago ca tur ito a iterestig place to be. It is beig reovated ad had attracted 26 small busiesses aroud the ed of Themes are small-scale, creative, hadicrafts ad useful for the eighbourhood, which has resulted i a mix of artistic specialist shops that oe does t fid aywhere else: a violi maker, high-quality Ethiopia coffee, a garde desig shop, a artistic hairdresser, a few ateliers ad a excellet Italia takeaway. Some of the older shops remaied, like a tailor, a kife grider ad a bicycle repair shop. Other projects Besides the three areas we have described above, there are a few projects that we wat to metio that do ot fit i the above categories. The umber of laws ad permits that gover the busiess sector is eormous, as we have show i detail above. It is the explicit itetio of the muicipality of Amsterdam to deregulate ad dimiish the amout of permits eeded for busiess. The Digital Couter Amsterdam (htp:// offers iformatio to etrepreeurs o startig a compay, subsidies, fidig housig, liceses, dispesatios ad taxes. Searchig is possible with keywords or by lookig for a certai topic. Applyig for muicipal services olie is possible through a digital form. I 2007 Amsterdam wo the Europea E-govermet Award for developig oe sigle digital form to apply for seve liceces at oce. This prize is awarded bieially to the best digital project i Europe. A secod poit that Amsterdam cosiders importat is iteratioalisatio. Iteratioalisatio is cosidered a prime mover of the Dutch ecoomy by the atioal govermet. Therefore, the atioal Ecoomic Iformatio Service (Ecoomische Voorlichtigs Diest, EVD), a agecy of the Miistry of Ecoomic Affairs, supports actors with iteratioal ambitios. The target group icludes etrepreeurs, policy employees at all levels ad scietists. The EVD udertakes to stimulate all types of iteratioal iitiatives or cooperatio ad to depict the Netherlads positively abroad. There are also a few small-scale activities i Amsterdam for yougsters, supported by the muicipality: The Streetlab Goes Istabul project 24 five Dutch fashio desigers will joi five local desigers, resultig i exhibitios, fashio shows, DJs ad performaces orgaised i cooperatio with fashio schools from Amsterdam, Istabul ad New York street artists. The cultural project Made i FEZ 25 a group of Dutch desigers ivestigated extedig the possibilities of their ow desig disciplies (fabric/desigs, ceramics ad silver/metal work) ad to exchage ideas ad ispiratio o desig i order to lear from each other, but above all to work together with a selected group of artisas from FEZ o a prototype collectio i which both east ad west craft ad desig would meet Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios,

40 Ethic etrepreeurship That Turkish baks have become so active (see Chapter 4) is a idicator that more trasatioal activity is takig place betwee Turkey ad the Netherlads tha we have bee able to register here. The iteratioal exchage of ethic etrepreeurs is probably cosiderable. Yet accordig to the CLIP questioaire, the muicipality could do more to expad the possibilities that ethic etrepreeurs trasatioal coectios offer with their home coutry or with co-ethics elsewhere i Europe. For istace, the muicipality could set up trade cetres for the promotio of trade with coutries of origi. It could develop liks with coutries of origi, for istace fashio i the case of Ghaa; it could try to commissio foreig studets as Amsterdam ambassadors ; ad it could improve Hidu Suriamese cotacts with Idia. Dialogue ad ivolvemet i policymakig How do ethic groups maage to get ito cotact with the istitutios that we have metioed ad how do they ifluece the policies? The best way to ifluece the Amsterdam muicipal policy remais via the coucil, i which 13% of the coucillors are curretly of immigrat origi. We eed to metio the Diversity Advisory Board (Adviesraad Diversiteit); 26 see the CLIP case study o diversity (Va Heelsum, 2008). Most of the muicipal services ad parter istitutios that we have metioed employ staff members that come from the domiat ethic groups i Amsterdam. These staff members guaratee iformal cotact lies, are part of etworks ad might be easier to approach tha Dutch officials. Aother way to promote the iterests of the etrepreeur is through workers ad employers uios. Immigrats have the right to become a member of the workers uio (ZZP sectio) or oe of the employers uios, but they are uderrepreseted. The Turkish trade uio represetative for the FNV estimates that 13% of Turks are orgaised i his sector, while 20% of Dutch are, ad cosiderably fewer Moroccas. The ZZP director says that oly a few of the 13,000 members have a o-dutch backgroud. The situatio amog employers is eve worse. The represetative of the employer orgaisatio MKB Amsterdam tells us that oly 2% of the MKB members are immigrats. MKB eeds to attract youg people, wome ad immigrats. There are several regular istitutioalised forms of dialogue. O a atioal level, dialogue betwee admiistratio ad workers ad employers uios takes place i the Socio Ecoomic Coucil (Sociaal Ecoomische Raad, SER). Most of the dialogue ad cooperatio i Amsterdam takes place whe certai projects are istalled. The most regular parters who meet each other are probably the Departmet of Ecoomic Affairs, DWI/UWV ad the employer orgaisatio. These parters ofte cooperate withi the framework of ogoig employmet projects. That the Turkish policy advisor of UWV is also a board member of the Chamber of Commerce helps a lot Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios, 2011

41 Case study: Amsterdam, the Netherlads There has also bee rather regular cooperatio o projects betwee Ecoomic Affairs, MKB Amsterdam ad Rabobak, for istace o the report De Kracht va de Wijk (Aalders a.o., 2006). Whe it comes to the eighbourhood approach (Kasezoes), the EZ ad DMO departmets, city district admiistratios, housig corporatios ad real estate developers are ivolved, but ot baks ad employer orgaisatios. To our surprise, whe asked whether or ot the trade uio FNV for retail trade ever works with the muicipality of Amsterdam, the represetative aswered, We oce had a iformatio project together but this was may years back, so it early ever happes. Why ot? Because the uio geerally operates as a lobbyist o a atioal level; local or city district groups are ot very strog. Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios,

42 6 Key challeges ad lessos for CLIP Summary ad coclusios As we have see i this case study, half of Amsterdam s populatio cosists of people with a immigrat backgroud. Therefore, the admiistratio thiks that it is better to use geeric policies, always bearig i mid that a policy has to be suitable for everyoe the Dutch, o-wester ad Wester immigrats. This does ot mea that Amsterdam has ot doe aythig for ethic etrepreeurs. Actually, may of the policies are aimed at them sometimes because they are cocetrated i a opportuity area where extra subsidies are give to etrepreeurs who improve their busiess ad the eighbourhood at the same time, sometimes because they are overrepreseted i the target group of low-icome citizes (micro credit) ad sometimes because employig staff from a specific backgroud ad opeig locatios i eighbourhoods where immigrats live attracts ethic cliets as customers. At the same time, the umber of o-wester immigrat etrepreeurs is still lower. They are more vulerable, their icomes are lower, they are situated i eighbourhoods with lower property values, their busiess more ofte eds i bakruptcy ad they are ot represeted i the usual etworks (EIM, 2007, pp. 55 6). What seems most importat is to keep i mid that ethic etrepreeurs have a iformatio problem compared to Dutch etrepreeurs ad therefore may ot use certai regulatios or uitetioally use them icorrectly. Stimulatig the formatio of etworks seems to be oe of the most effective strategies to ivolve etrepreeurs without forcig them. Noe of the istitutios ivolved i the regulatio of the ecoomy have targeted ethic etrepreeurs specifically. Because the percetage of people of immigrat origi is aroud 50% i Amsterdam, because the ethic groups differ a lot ad because the first geeratio differs cosiderably from the secod, it is cosidered better to use geeric policies, but always bearig i mid that a policy has to also be suitable for a first-geeratio Morocca or ay other perso. Figure 11: Oe of four Ethiopia restaurats, popular amog the Dutch, i the same street Photo: Aja va Heelsum 40 Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios, 2011