This article discusses six problems in the area of the sociology of the ethnic economy. The problems are: (1) a skewed view of the import and robustness of ethnic businesses, (2) an inaccurate view of harmony and exclusive dependence on co-ethnics among ethnic business owners, (3) a contradiction between the stranger hypothesis and the protected market hypothesis, (4) difficulties with the special endowments hypothesis, (5) uncertainties in propositions that attempt to explain business concentration among ethnics, and (6) use of the term middleman minority in a generic sense. The works of five leading U.S. scholars are examined in terms of what they contribute to the solution of these problems.
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