| The
Immigrant Restaurant Industry |
The
project focuses on the involvement of immigrant entrepreneurs in
the restaurant sector in Vancouver, Amsterdam and Sydney, and aims
at describing and explaining the processes that account for the
emergence and success—or lack of it, for that matter—of
immigrant restaurants, eating places, deliveries and takeaways.
The project aims at studying the behavior of entrepreneurs and
consumers and the interaction between them. It assumes the
existence of an opportunity structure, of immigrant entrepreneurs,
and of a critical infrastructure that mediates between the two.
This critical infrastructure entails the (national and local)
government, business associations, marketing bureaus,
connoisseurs, cultural mediators, and so forth, that whatever
their intentions affect the popularity of particular ethnic
cuisines. Together they shape the multi-cultural urban landscape
in which immigrant restaurants play a part. These are our basic
research questions:What has been the development of the restaurant
sector in Amsterdam, Sydney and Vancouver since 1970, in terms of
numbers of food outlets, volume of workforce, value of sales, and
variety of cuisines, market segmentation, and what has been the
ethnic composition of the entrepreneurs and workers in this
sector? Also, how has the economic geography of the sector evolved
in the three cities?
How have restaurateurs marketed their products? To what kind of
clientele do they cater, and how does their marketing (in terms of
product, place, presentation etcetera) affect consumers’
preferences and, indirectly, the success of their business? Who
are the consumers? What are their characteristics and preferences,
and how do they affect the development of the restaurant sector in
general and Chinese and Middle Eastern restaurants in particular?
What is the role of the critical infrastructure, in particular the
role of the government, business organizations and cultural
mediators? Does spatial concentration (in ethnic commercial
precincts such as Chinatown) or dispersion of immigrant
restaurants matter? What does the interface of immigrant
restaurateurs and (immigrant and non-immigrant) consumers tell us
about the acceptance of ethno-cultural diversity? What are the
similarities and differences between Amsterdam, Sydney and
Vancouver? What are the relevant general processes and how do they
manifest themselves in these historically specific urban
landscapes?  |
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| Key
participants |
| Jock
Collins (University of Technology Sydney), Daniel
Hiebert (University of British Columbia), Ching
Lin Pang, and Jan
Rath
(University of Amsterdam). |
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