POPULATION-NORWAY: Immigrants Succeeding in Small Business Sector

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Jan T. Skjelbek

OSLO, Jun 22 2001 (IPS) - Ethnic minorities in Oslo seem to find more entrepreneurial success than Norwegian-owned small businesses, according to new report.

In a study here in the capital Oslo, conducted by The Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research (NIBR), it has emerged that in little more than a decade, an increasing proportion of small businesses in food related sectors have been set up and run by immigrants and ethnic minorities.

The report “Immigrant enterprises and ethnic entrepreneurs” states that cafés, restaurants, food stores and fast food outlets in Oslo have experienced an overall growth thanks to minority groups.

In the period 1989 to 1997 immigrants from non-western countries established 300 food stores, 200 fast-food outlets and kiosks and 160 restaurants. This is quite impressive in a town of less than half a million inhabitants and of course a very important contribution to the economic growth and the creation of jobs in the society.

The content of the study is based on 25 interviews with business owners and managers in the food-related sector in Oslo. The interviewees represent ethnic minorities from China, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and Turkey.

Turkish-born Nazli Pakirci is an example of an immigrant who is enjoying entrepreneurial success through her own small business, the bakery Anatolia Kitchen, which has two full-time employees in addition to Nazli. The self-made-woman explains her progress with hard work, nothing less than 16 hours a day.

“I don’t like to sleep. I would much rather work. We start at eight in the morning and I finish my duties in the bakery around midnight”, she says, adding that it is a family business, meaning that her husband and relatives every now and then come by to give a helping hand. “But I enjoy working alone the most”, Nazli adds.

She started Anatolia Kitchen in the central areas of Oslo half a year ago together with a girlfriend and her husband. Their families chipped in some money so that they could establish a business of their own.

None of the people in the NIBR-study had received any form of public support to initiate or run a business. In all the 25 cases the immigrants used their ôethnic resourcesö for help.

People with the same religious and cultural background find themselves in the same situation when trying to make a living in a strange country. They therefore help each other in order to survive. Researcher and author of the NIBR-report, Knut Onsager, confirms this.

“It is more common to make use of ethnic resources and networks in Norway or in their home countries than ask for a loan in a bank”, he explains. “Through these contacts immigrant groups establish informal cooperation and connections where training, information-sharing, loans and collective purchases form an important part”.

Onsager says these factors represent necessary conditions for successful setting up and managing the businesses they have in Oslo.

“Before setting up a business of their own, they have in many cases done a variety of unskilled, insecure and low-paid jobs. Some have higher education, but don’t manage to make use of it in Norway. After working for several years at the bottom end of the labor market, they often manage to put together enough capital to set up a store for themselves”, according to Onsager.

The interviewees in the report reveal that one important factor for becoming independent entrepreneurs, is that they have a strong desire for upward mobility. They wish to get out of low-paid jobs and move on to a place of work that enables them to live a better life.

“One group of immigrants said that fear of unemployment or permanent involvement in jobs characterized by lots of hard work and low pay, insecure and unreliable employment conditions or strongly inferior status, were among their main motives. Others emphasized the desire to be independent, earn one’s own money and show that one can succeed”., Onsager explains.

Onsager predicts that the demand for what he calls “ethnic products” will continue to rise in the years to come. ôNorwegian have just began to open their eyes to these productsö, he says.

Some food store chains in Norway have begun to sell the same products that immigrants supply, but for most of the time the selection is poor. Basmati rice or Chinese noodles are more or less the most exotic kind you can find in a common Norwegian food store.

According to the NIBR-report the inhabitants of Oslo can draw quite a few advantages from the entrepreneurial accomplishment of the immigrant groups. An increasing demand for the goods and services they supply has resulted in lower prices and a wide variety of fresh and exotic food.