Economic mechanisms and spatial resources: elements of a diaspora economy[Dispositivo Económico y Recursos Espaciales : Elementos de una Economiía de Diáspora]

One of the goals of this article is the description of the arrangement and relationships between Chinese enterprises. To the categories of ethnic labor market, intra or extra-ethnic markets, exotic commerce, communautary commerce and banal commerce, we propose the notions of export trade enterprise, « upstream » enterprise, enterprise of reproduction of identity. The other goal is to try to analyse how this arrangement is related to the economy of the diaspora. It would appear that the driving principle which works in this « arrangement » is a principle of autonomy, which on the one hand is linked to the willingness of the community to reproduce itself through entrepreneurship, and, on the other hand leads to the autonomy of the group itself. This choice towards entrepreneurship is linked to the fact that it permits the Chinese community to persevere in its own being. This principle of autonomy seems also to govern the diasporic economy as well as the spatial resources used.