ABSTRACT

Immigrants from Turkey often end up as self-employed or employees in the fast food and restaurant sector in Finland. The concept of ethnic economy (Light & Gold 2000) describes the employment pattern in this particular economic sector. The article suggests that a large state involvement is not necessarily in conflict with the existence of ethnic economies, and in some instances welfare state policies even might support the creation of ethnic economies. The study is based on semi-structured interviews with Turkish entrepreneurs and their Turkish employees in Finland. The article discusses both positive and negative consequences of an ethnic economy for the employees in the 'kebab economy'. Since the Finnish general labour market is largely closed to immigrants, Turkish employees end up in a situation where they work under bad working conditions in kebab shops, hoping one day to be able to start their own business. This pattern is supported by the Finnish Employment Offices that provide Turkish firms with co‑ethnic employees within the framework of various official training schemes. The results of the study highlight the importance of the wider economic, institutional and social contexts in which immigrant businesses operate.

KEYWORDS: ethnic economy, immigrant businesses, welfare state, Turkish immigrants