Vietnamese Restaurant Owners in Quebec Province, Canada

• In Event: 2384 - Section on International Migration Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 07. Enclaves and Entrepreneurship

Abstract

This is a preliminary study of Vietnamese restauranteurs in three cities of Canada's Quebec Province: Quebec City, Montreal and Trois-Rivieres. This work is part of a larger ethnographic project to compare Vietnamese restaurant owners in Quebec, Canada to Vietnamese restaurant owners in Los Angeles and "Little Saigon", USA. I highlight the differences and similarities in terms of structural conditions, group characteristics, socio-historical and cultural-political contexts. How does Vietnamese entrepreneurship differ in these three cities? How will they compare to "Little Saigon" in California, the largest concentration of Vietnamese outside of Viet Nam? I share my 4 months of ethnographic work in Quebec Province and 30 years of participant-observation in "Little Saigon".

Author

• Gina Masequesmay, California State University-Northridge