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Immigrants’ Entrepreneurship in Greece at Times of Crisis: Ambivalent Paths and the Persistence of Institutional Barriers

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Entrepreneurship in the Balkans

Abstract

The entrepreneurship of immigrants in Greece is a relatively recent phenomenon, and as such so far has attracted limited academic interest. Arguably, it has expanded quite rapidly over the past two decades, and has been, partly at least, tied to the dynamics of immigrants’ settlement and incorporation and the formation of ethnic communities (Labrianidis and Hatziprokopiou 2010). Even more, the phenomenon has been more intense and particularly visible in the Greek capital, where the spread of migrant businesses gradually forms an organic part of the city landscape and the everyday experience of the urban, even in areas not characterized by large concentrations.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    E.g. Lifo magazine of 07-02-2008 (Lifo 2008) and Kathimerini newspaper of 05-04-2008 (Onisenko 2008), respectively.

  2. 2.

    E.g. newspaper To Vima of 26-02-2012 (Tratsa 2012).

  3. 3.

    Inevitably incomplete, this brief literature review has not touched upon critical perspectives in the literature on ethnic/migrant entrepreneurship and has left a number of issues outside the scope of this chapter, such as the question of class (and class resources), the spatial dimension (and how immigrant businesses are shaped by urban contexts or in turn decisively transform them), aspects such as business finance and strategies of breaking out, the diversity and diversification of activities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Spatial Planning and Development, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Panos Hatziprokopiou & Yannis Frangopoulos

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  1. Panos Hatziprokopiou
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  2. Yannis Frangopoulos
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Correspondence to Panos Hatziprokopiou .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. South-East European University, Ilindenska nn, Tetovo, 1200, Macedonia

    Veland Ramadani

  2. , The College at Brockport, State University of New York, New Campus Drive 350, Brockport, 14420, New York, USA

    Robert C. Schneider

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Hatziprokopiou, P., Frangopoulos, Y. (2013). Immigrants’ Entrepreneurship in Greece at Times of Crisis: Ambivalent Paths and the Persistence of Institutional Barriers. In: Ramadani, V., Schneider, R. (eds) Entrepreneurship in the Balkans. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36577-5_10

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