"A new song or evergreen ...?" The spatial concentration of Vietnamese migrants' businesses on Prague's Sapa site
Abstract
A locality characterised by a high concentration of economic activities of immigrants, predominantly immigrants from Vietnam, has emerged on the outskirts of Prague. This article explores whether or not this locality-in terms of its function, structure, mutual relations among entrepreneurs and physical morphology- resembles certain rather well-known spatial models of migrant business concentration as described in other developed immigration countries (e. g. ethnic enclave economies, commercial/business enclaves, ethnic markets/retail districts, commercial hubs and ethnic commercial belts).
Despite having some features in common with the existing models of spatial concentration, the Sapa site has certain specific features, namely a primary and very strong function as a wholesale centre serving the Vietnamese ethnic economy, the absence of a residential function, weak ethnic features including goods for sale and its origin without the intervention of a local government. In all these aspects, Sapa and other to a certain extent similar post-socialist markets/bazaars in Central Eastern Europe are relatively unique among existing models.