ABSTRACT
Scientific studies of ethnic entrepreneurship in France got underway fifteen years ago. They coincided with the 1974 economic crisis and its adverse implications for migration. Naturally this coincidence was not the result of chance. The economic crisis encouraged the shift of immigrant employees to self-employment, and so prompted research on this theme. A thematic reading of this literature reveals the convergence of three approaches linked to disciplinary affiliations of geographers, sociologists, and anthropologists. Economists have shown little interest in immigrant entrepreneurs.
