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“A new song or evergreen …?” The spatial concentration of Vietnamese migrants’ businesses on Prague’s Sapa site

Neues Modell oder alter Hut? Konzentration von Geschäften vietnamesischer Migranten in Prags Sapa-Zentrum

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Abstract

A locality characterised by a high concentration of economic activities of immigrants, predominantly immigrants from Vietnam, has emerged on the outskirts of Prague. This article explores whether or not this locality—in terms of its function, structure, mutual relations among entrepreneurs and physical morphology—resembles certain rather well-known spatial models of migrant business concentration as described in other developed immigration countries (e. g. ethnic enclave economies, commercial/business enclaves, ethnic markets/retail districts, commercial hubs and ethnic commercial belts). Despite having some features in common with the existing models of spatial concentration, the Sapa site has certain specific features, namely a primary and very strong function as a wholesale centre serving the Vietnamese ethnic economy, the absence of a residential function, weak ethnic features including goods for sale and its origin without the intervention of a local government. In all these aspects, Sapa and other to a certain extent similar post-socialist markets/bazaars in Central Eastern Europe are relatively unique among existing models.

Zusammenfassung

Am Rand von Prag ist ein Ort entstanden, der sich durch eine hohe Konzentration wirtschaftlicher Aktivitäten von Immigranten auszeichnet – vorwiegend Immigranten aus Vietnam. Im vorliegenden Artikel wird untersucht, ob dieser Ort hinsichtlich seiner Funktion, Struktur, der gegenseitigen Beziehungen zwischen den Unternehmern und seiner physischen Morphologie bekannten räumlichen Modellen der Geschäftskonzentration von Migranten ähnelt, wie sie in anderen Einwandererländern beschrieben werden (z. B. ethnische Enklaveökonomien, Handels- bzw. Business-Enklaven, ethnische Märkte/Einzelhandelsbezirke, Geschäftszentren und ethnische Gewerbegürtel). Trotz einiger Gemeinsamkeiten mit bestehenden Modellen räumlicher Konzentration hat das Sapa-Zentrum gewisse spezifische Eigenschaften, nämlich eine primäre und sehr starke Funktion als Großhandelszentrum, welches der vietnamesischen ethnischen Wirtschaft dient; das Fehlen einer anwohnerorientierten Funktion; eine geringe Bedeutung ethnischer Eigenschaften einschließlich der Verkaufswaren sowie das Entstehen ohne die Intervention einer lokalen Regierung. In all diesen Aspekten sind Sapa und ähnliche postsozialistische Märkte bzw. Basare in Mittel- und Osteuropa relativ einzigartig unter den bestehenden Modellen.

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Notes

  1. On the 1st of January 2015 there were 449,367 foreigners officially residing in the country for longer than 3 months (CZSO 2016).

  2. The East Berlin marketplace, the Dong Xuan Centre, is also named after the most famous wholesale market in Hanoi, Vietnam.

  3. By the term “exotic elements” we mean the goods, architecture, signs etc. that are remote to Czech culture and that which is commonly seen by the majority population in the Czech Republic.

  4. Based on our research we cannot give more precise information as to how long the entrepreneurs active in the Sapa site have been resident in the Czech Republic or how many of them are immigrants or already Czech citizens or even persons of foreign origin but born in the Czech Republic. Nevertheless, we deduce that the majority of them are immigrants.

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Drbohlav, D., Čermáková, D. “A new song or evergreen …?” The spatial concentration of Vietnamese migrants’ businesses on Prague’s Sapa site. Österreich Z Soziol 41, 427–447 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11614-016-0247-1

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