Since the early 1980s, self-employment among ethnic minorities has increased significantly in Europe. The booming economy in Europe and the available opportunities in various industries appear to have led to the emergence of a new breed of ethnic minority entrepreneurs. The ethnic minorities in Europe are expected to continue to grow and thereby the business ownership among these ethnic groups. It is generally found that contemporary ethnic communities generate entrepreneurs able to contribute more and more to  economic growth and the welfare of the host countries.

The overall objective of this study is to integrate existing insights into the emergence of ethnic entrepreneurship from a theoretical point of view. Attempts will be made to learn about the experiences of ethnic entrepreneurship in several countries, special attention being paid to the Netherlands.

The study focuses exclusively on theoretical explanations, and ends up with the development of a conceptual framework, which can be used to explain the emergence of ethnic entrepreneurship. The conceptual framework is worked out in terms of variables required for a better understanding of the emergence of ethnic enterprises. The approach emphasizes the features of the ethnic groups as 'donor groups' , which 'recruit' entrepreneurs. The individual entrepreneurs process the donor group signals and subsequently search their ways towards economic success. The framework accommodates as determinants of entrepreneurship five capitals of the ethnic group and its entrepreneurs: human capital, informational capital, financial capital, social capital and cultural capital. It is shown that it should be feasible to operationalize and test the relationships in the framework.