Reversing the Assimilation Process

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Volume 1, Number 3 (Spring 1991)
Issue theme: "A world without borders?"

The Federal Register for February 21, 1991 (Vol. 56, No. 35) contains the following item

The Minority Business Development Agency has received a petition requesting it to designate Iranians who entered the U.S. as political refugees as a social or economically disadvantaged group whose members are eligible to receive assistance from the Agency.

The regulations of the Minority Business Development Agency say in part In order to be eligible to receive assistance from MBDA funded organizations, a concern must be a minority business enterprise. A minority business enterprise is a business enterprise that is owned or controlled by one or more socially or economically disadvantaged persons. Executive order 11625 designates Blacks, Puerto Ricans, Spanish-speaking Americans, American Indians, Eskimos and Aleuts as persons who are socially or economically disadvantaged and thus eligible for MBDA assistance (1400.1 b).

A group wishing to apply for designation as socially or economically disadvantaged under Executive Order 11625 shall submit a written application to the Director of the Minority Business Development Agency, United States Department of Commerce, Washington DC, 20230, containing the following information

(a) Statement of request a brief statement clearly indicating that the applicant seeks formal recognition as socially or economically disadvantaged.

(b) Description of applicants a detailed sociological, ethnic and/or racial description, as appropriate, of the group they represent which indicates that the group and the traits of its members are sufficiantly distinctive to warrant a determination of social or economic disadvan-tage... (1400.3).