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This report provides a detailed and systematic analysis of informal activities in Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa, particularly their operational characteristics of the sector, production, employment and income relations. The report also examines the various constraints affecting the development of the sector. The latter part of the report emphasises policies to be adopted to assist the sector as well as projects which could promote and support informal sector activities in the country

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1 Culture, Structure, and the South Texas– Northern Mexico Border Economy -- 2 Underground Economic Activities -- 3 Informal Economic Activities -- 4 Informality and Undocumented Workers -- 5 Informal Cross-Border Trade -- 6 Border Colonias: Informality in Housing -- 7 The Informal Health Care Economy (with Dejun Su) -- 8 Family and Welfare Informality (with Amelia Flores) -- Conclusion -- Appendix A: Borderlife Survey Research Projects Utilized in This Volume -- Appendix B: Names of Students Who Contributed Ethnographic Accounts -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

This article originated in the study of one Northern Ghanaian group, the Frafras, as migrants to the urban areas of Southern Ghana. It describes the economic activities of the low-income section of the labour force in Accra, the urban sub-proletariat into which the unskilled and illiterate majority of Frafra migrants are drawn.Price inflation, inadequate wages, and an increasing surplus to the requirements of the urban labour market have led to a high degree of informality in the income-generating activities of the sub-proletariat. Consequently income and expenditure patterns are more complex than is normally allowed for in the economic analysis of poor countries. Government planning and the effective application of economic theory in this sphere has been impeded by the unthinking transfer of western categories to the economic and social structures of African cities. The question to be answered is this: Does the 'reserve army of urban unemployed and underemployed' really constitute a passive, exploited majority in cities like Accra, or do their informal economic activities possess some autonomous capacity for generating growth in the incomes of the urban (and rural) poor?

This paper explores the phenomenon of ethnic entrepreneurship in Greece. Greece has been transformed from an emigration to an immigration country. Since the 1990s the majority of migrant workers occupy low paid, unskilled jobs in the informal economy. However, some set up (in) formal businesses. Ethnic entrepreneurs of our study have been excluded from social and economic opportunities. By running a business they struggle against exclusion, have control over their work situation (work hours, income) and gain emotional satisfaction and self-fulfilment. As we will show, self-employment is viewed as an 'alternative income-generating activity, a strategy towards inclusion, a feasible 'survival strategy' for escaping discrimination and exclusion given the lack of other employment options. In this context, entrepreneurship is not viewed as an economic behaviour structured by the existing economic and socio-political structures only, but also, as having an important subjective meaning for the self-employed migrant. We will demonstrate that ethnic businesses comprise a mosaic of formal and informal activities. Opportunities for participation of migrants in informal activities occur because of the high demand for informal provision of services and goods at competitive prices. The entrance barriers are lower than in the informal sector since one usually does not have to meet costs associated with running of a business. Although the development of ethnic business activities will be viewed as the outcome of interaction on one's legal status, economic resources, access to informal networks of support, individual aspirations and structures of opportunity (e.g. informal economy) available to migrants in the Greek case migrants are faced with structural disadvantages that push them into what is marginal self-employment. It is the peculiarities of the Greek case (large informal economy and high rates of self-employment and the multiple forms of exclusion they experience as they were in Greece) that encourage them to become ' survival' entrepreneurs, to strive to create a business of their own in the 'twilight zone' of the Greek economy where they often carry out extra-legal activities in order to 'survive'.

This study addresses two questions. First, among the three major perspectives on integration (i.e., zero-sum, pluralist, and selective integration) suggested in the literature, which is the dominant pattern of the participation level in informal social activities in the ethnic community and in the wider society among new immigrant groups? Second, how well do the factors suggested by these three perspectives explain these patterns? Based on recently collected data about Chinese immigrants in Toronto, Canada, the analyses suggest that nearly half the respondents claim a low level of social participation. Among those who do participate, the pluralist integration pattern is the dominant pattern of participation in informal social activities among today's Chinese immigrants. Though the analysis shows the consistent effect of human capital resources on the pluralist integration patterns, there is no significant effect of either human capital resources or duration in the country on the zero-sum and selective patterns. Implications of the results are discussed.

Re-Placing Informal Employment challenges many of the popular myths surrounding informal economic activities, and offers a radical reassesment of their extent, growth, location and nature. The book uses case studies from the UK, France, Italy, the Netherlands, the US and Canada to challenge: * the popular belief that informal employment is growing throughout the advanced economies * the myth that this work is undertaken mostly by marginalized groups * the dominant view that we should replace informal with formal employment through enforcement of regulations. Examining policy options and their

Immigrants from non‐industrialized countries have become part and parcel of the social fabric of many advanced urban economies, including those in the Netherlands. A significant number of these migrants opt for setting up shop themselves. Lacking access to large financial resources and mostly lacking in educational qualifications, they are funnelled towards the lower end of the opportunity structure of these urban economies. To survive in these cut‐throat markets, many migrant entrepreneurs revert to informal economic activities that are strongly dependent on specific social networks – mostly consisting of co‐ethnics – to sustain these activities on a more permanent basis. To understand the social position of these migrant entrepreneurs and their chances of upward social mobility, one has to look beyond these co‐ethnic networks and focus on their insertion in the wider society in terms of customers, suppliers and various kinds of business organizations. To deal with this latter type of insertion, we propose the use of a more comprehensive concept of mixed embeddedness that aims at incorporating both the co‐ethnic social networks as well as the linkages (or lack of linkages) between migrant entrepreneurs and the economic and institutional context of the host society. We illustrate this concept by presenting a case study of Islamic butchers in the Netherlands.—Les immigrants des pays pas industrialisés sont devenus une part intégrale du tissu social de nombreuses économies urbaines développées, y compris celles des Pays‐Bas. Un nombre significatif de migrants choisissent de s'établir à leur compte. N'ayant pas accès à des ressources financières importantes et ayant peu de qualifications académiques, ils sont entraînés vers le bas des structures de débouchés de ces économies. Pour survivre dans ces économies très dures, beaucoup d'entrepreneurs immigrants retournent aux activités économiques informelles qui dépendent fortement des réseaux sociaux spécifiques – principalement co‐ethniques – pour soutenir ces activités de façon plus permanente. Afin de comprendre la position sociale de ces migrants entrepreneurs et leurs possibilités de mobilité sociale vers le haut, il faut regarder plus loin que ces réseaux co‐ethniques et explorer leur insertion dans la société en général par rapport aux clients, fournisseurs et divers types d'organisation commerciales. Pour traiter de ce type d'insertion, nous proposons d'utiliser un concept d'incorporation mélangée plus compréhensif qui a pour but d'intégrer à la fois les réseaux sociaux co‐ethniques et les liens (ou manque de liens) entre les migrants entrepreneurs et le contexte économique et institutionnel de la société d'acceuil. Nous illustrons ce concept par un cas d'étude de bouchers islamiques aux Pays‐Bas.

The underground of the countries of Africa south of the Sahara is full of enormous potentialities and raw materials of all kinds.But the population of Africa in general and of Africa south of the Sahara, in particular, remains the poorest in the world. A contrast which can be justified by the political and economic instability, the corollary of which is poor management, the drop in the standard of living.The economic potential of these countries does not reflect the level of populations that generally languish in enormous poverty without real livelihoods.Beginning in the 1980s, a large-scale economic crisis shook virtually all African countries because of the stringent restrictions and measures imposed by the Bretton Woods institutions, notably the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.In order to cope with the increasingly difficult living conditions, the populations of which were the main victims, that is to say, the populations will gradually organize themselves and several activities will emerge.These activities are part of the informal sector.It is, therefore, a sector that brings together unemployed people looking for employment and societal well-being who organize themselves to face everyday problems.This means that it is a lucrative sector that is constantly absorbing unemployment in Congo in general and Brazzaville in particular.

Drawing upon findings from an ethnographic study conducted in crisis-ridden Greece, this article explores consumer participation in the informal economy and illustrates the diversity of political discourse embedded within this type of economic activity. The study focused on 24 consumers from three distinctive theoretical categories (termed 'ethical consumers', 'active citizens' and 'disqualified consumers') and involved a variety of data collection methods (including observation, kitchen tours, shop-along and interviews). Empirical evidence demonstrates that to fully appreciate consumer activity and consumer agency in the informal economy, it is imperative to recognise informal modes of acquisition and exchange that do not resemble formal market transactions.