Contents

Middleman minority

Overview[edit]

There are numerous examples of such groups gaining eventual prosperity in their adopted country despite discrimination. Often, they will take on roles between producer and consumer, such as trading and moneylending. Famous examples such as Jews throughout Europe even at times when discrimination against them was high, Chinese throughout Southeast Asia and North America, Muslims and ParsisinIndia, IgbosinNigeria, IndiansinEast Africa, LebaneseinWest Africa, and many others.^[3]

Middleman minorities usually provide an economic benefit to communities and nations and often start new industries. However, their economic aptitude, financial success and clannishness, combined with social prejudices by other groups against businesses and moneylending, can cause resentment among the native population of a country. Middleman minorities can be victims of racist violence, terrorists, bullying, genocide, racialist policy, or other forms of repression. Other ethnic groups often accuse them of plotting conspiracies against their nation or of stealing wealth from the native population.^[3]

Examples[edit]

In Africa

• IndiansinEast Africa^[4]
• IgbosinNigeria
• Syrians and LebaneseinWest Africa^[4]

In South Asia

• Kashmiri PanditsinIndia^[4]
• ParsisinIndia^[4]

In North America

• Chinese Americans^[5]
• Japanese Americans^[6]
• Korean Americans^[7]
• Greek Americans^[4]
• Lebanese Americans^[4]

In South America

• Japanese in South America^[4]
• Lebanese in South America^[8]
• The majority of the 19th and early 20th centuries Middle Eastern immigrants to Brazil (Lebanese, Syrians, etc., collectively called "arabes" or "turcos", the latter term because they came from the Ottoman Empire) were peddlers, merchants and other types of non-"producers".^[9]

In West Asia

• Ottoman Greeks^[4]
• Arab Christians in the Arab world^[10]
• Hadhramis^[11][12][13]

Armenian

• Armenians in the Ottoman Empire^[14][15]
• Armenians in Baku during the Russian Empire^[16]
• Persian ArmeniansinSafavid dynasty^{[17][full citation needed] [14]}
• Armenian Americans^[4]

Azerbaijani

• Azerbaijanis during the Imperial era of Iran (16th–20th centuries)^[18]
• Azerbaijanis in the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire^[18]
• Azerbaijanis in contemporary Iran^[18]
• Azerbaijanis in contemporary Russia^[19][18]

Jewish

• American Jews^[4]
• European Jews^[4]
• Ottoman Jews^[4]
• Radhanite Jews^{[citation needed]}

Elsewhere

• ChineseinSoutheast Asia^[4]
• Chinese and Vietnamese in Russia and Eastern Europe since the fall of Communism and collapse of the Soviet Union^[20]

See also[edit]

• Colonialism, particularly exploitation colonialism and plantation colonies
• Dominant minority
• Market-dominant minority
• Minoritarianism
• Model minority
• Neocolonialism
• World on Fire (book)
• Yuri Slezkine's book The Jewish Century (2004) discussed the concept of "Mercurian" people "specializ[ing] exclusively in providing services to the surrounding food-producing societies," which are characterized as "Apollonians"

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• Silverman, Robert Mark. 2000. Doing Business in Minority Markets: Black and Korean Entrepreneurs in Chicago’s Ethnic Beauty Aids Industry. New York: Garland Publishing.
• Cobas, José A. (Apr 1987). "Ethnic enclaves and middleman minorities: alternative strategies of immigrant adaptation?". Sociol Perspect. 30 (2): 143–61. doi:10.2307/1388996. JSTOR 1388996. PMID 12315137. S2CID 28038205.
• Pál Nyíri, Chinese in Eastern Europe and Russia: A Middleman Minority in a Transnational Era, 2007, ISBN 0415446864