Migrant Entrepreneurship in Greece: Diversity of Pathways for Emerging Ethnic Business Communities in Thessaloniki

This paper examines aspects of immigrants’ entrepreneurship in Greece, focusing on the emergence of distinct ethnic business communities by migrants from China, Nigeria, Albania and the former USSR. Beginning from a literature review, it overviews the policy context and official statistics in Greece and discusses recent fieldwork findings in Thessaloniki. The diversity of entrepreneurial strategies and practises is explained through a typology based on the prevailing characteristics of immigrant businesses. We suggest that the entrepreneurship of migrants is embedded within the dynamics of immigrants’ integration and the broader factors on which this depends. This has important implications, calling for a realistic, coherent, inclusive and long-spanning migratory policy.