Segregation or Integration? Immigrant Self-Employment in Switzerland

This article investigates whether immigrant self-employment is related more to segregation in the labour market than work as an employee (making it justifiable to speak of ethnic business) or whether, on the contrary, it reflects equality with the self-employment by the Swiss. The distinctive features of this research design are the comparison of ethnic segregation in the labour market with gender-specific segregation and the fact that, apart from migrants of the first generation, members of the second generation are also taken into consideration. The analyses show, firstly, that large differences exist between the various groups of migrants and that three patterns in immigrant self-employment become apparent. While for one person self-employment brings greater adjustment to the Swiss in comparison with working as an employee, for another it is associated with greater segregation. The third pattern reveals that self-employment can be an expression of “superstratification” (Überschichtung). Secondly, the analyses indicate that, for the self-employed, gender-specific horizontal and vertical segregation tends to be smaller than for employees. However, in the upper positions of the social space, greater gender-specific inequalities can be observed than in the lower positions, thus making “class” and “gender” intersect as structural categories of social inequality.