Immigrant Entrepreneurs Research Articles

Immigrants’ Entrepreneurship: Analytical Overview of Foreign Approaches

Entrepreneurial activity of immigrants is a fairly new phenomenon for Russian reality which explains both the paucity of empirical works and the practically absence of a holistic view of theoretical and methodological foundations for such studies in Russian social science. The article aims to fill this gap and offer an analytical overview of the main foreign theoretical approaches to the immigrant entrepreneurship. The review is structured according to the main thematic issues in connection with which as a rule the peculiarities of immigrant entrepreneurship are discussed, which distinguish them from other types of entrepreneurship. The article sequentially examines approaches to the study of factors, group and individual characteristics of immigrants that promote or limit the development of their entrepreneurial activity; special attention is paid to the history of the study and (re)assessment of the role that ethnicity plays in migrant entrepreneurship; finally, the spatial aspect of the entrepreneurial activity of migrants is analyzed. Among the theoretical approaches special attention is paid to interactive theory, theory of mixed embeddedness, theory of ethnic economics, concepts of middleman, enclave economy, positioning, scaling and placement, as well as more modern concepts of glocalized networks, multifocality and transnational mixed embeddedness.

Immigrant entrepreneurship with a focus on human and social capital as determinants of success: evidence from South Africa

PurposeAs a consequence of global changes, the landscape of immigration is changing. This brings opportunities for researching more nuanced aspects related to immigrant entrepreneurship in new contexts. The purpose of this paper is to establish the extent to which Africa-to-African immigrants leverage their social capital and human capital towards improving the success of their entrepreneurial ventures.Design/methodology/approachFirst-generation immigrant entrepreneurs within the Johannesburg area in South Africa were surveyed (n = 230). Instrument validity and reliability was first established, and then the hypotheses were tested using multiple regression analyses.FindingsHypotheses are supported insofar African immigrant entrepreneurs in South Africa rely on their structural and resource-related dimensions of social capital to achieve entrepreneurial success. Furthermore, human capital in terms of both work experience and entrepreneurial experience was found to be a significant predictor of entrepreneurial success.Research limitations/implicationsThere is value in developing policies that promote African immigrant entrepreneurs with higher levels of human and social capital. These African immigrants have the potential to increase the national skills base and knowledge required for successful entrepreneurship development in South Africa.Originality/valueWhile both human capital and social capital have been associated significantly with the generic entrepreneurship literature, this paper provides an empirical contribution by focusing on the relevance of these constructs in the context of immigrant entrepreneurship from an African emerging market perspective.

Staying in or stepping out? Growth strategies of second-generation immigrant entrepreneurs

Second generation immigrant entrepreneurs (SGIEs) in developed economies have contributed to the emergence of new areas of business activity, especially in information technology, business services, and creative industries. An understanding of their growth strategies can shed light on the role of individual immigrants in the founding of potentially global firms competing with large multinational enterprises. Based on eleven case studies of SGIEs of Indian origin in the UK, our findings reveal that SGIEs are heterogeneous in their growth strategies contingent on their a) founding or succession context, and b) use of social ties. Founder SGIEs combining non-co-ethnic ties with non-family co-ethnic ties geographically expand outward to other foreign countries, including their country of origin. In contrast, successor SGIEs combining non-co-ethnic ties with family ties expand their product/ service scope within the UK; they exploit foreign market links, including their country of origin, to source supplies or customers through inward internationalization. These findings contribute to the immigrant entrepreneurship, international business and international entrepreneurship literatures.

Financing the creation of microenterprises with microcredit: Does being an immigrant make a difference?

AbstractFinancing immigrant microenterprises has emerged as an important economic and social issue in Europe, yet this is an area that presents specificities only partially investigated by extant literature. Using a bank's loan dataset containing information on 669 small loans granted in Portugal between 2016 and 2019, this paper explores differences between immigrants and nationals in financing microenterprises in small loans programs. The results obtained with nonparametric statistical tests allow us to conclude that immigrants are different from their national counterparts in terms of human capital and location of business activity. However, no significant differences were found between immigrant entrepreneurs (IEs) from their national counterparts in the credit amount, sector in which businesses are created and small loan repayment. Our study contributes toward broadening the literature on the financing of IE by empirically testing the thesis that claims “discrimination against minorities” by credit institutions and explores less investigated aspects with geographic or business sector focus. Results are also useful for policymakers and support providers who often face many obstacles in designing and implementing support policies for entrepreneurial immigrants.

The Decorated Tenement: How Immigrant Builders and Architects Transformed the Slum in the Gilded Age

The Decorated Tenement: How Immigrant Builders and Architects Transformed the Slum in the Gilded Age

Swedish migration policy liberalization and new immigrant entrepreneurs

AbstractSweden has allowed immigrants from any country to obtain residence permits for entrepreneurship since 2008. The aim of this study was to explore the outcome of this policy. The study adds time perspective and superdiversity and operationalizes the mixed embeddedness framework to facilitate a quantitative study on three levels of analysis. Detailed register data for two cohorts of immigrants—those who arrived four years before and those who arrived four years after the reform—are used. The results confirm the usefulness of the mixed embeddedness model, that is the institutional regulative context, economic and social context, and individual resources, in the analysis of immigrant entrepreneurship. However, the study shows that the propensity to engage in entrepreneurship is more affected for refugees and students than for migrants with a residence permit for work and entrepreneurship. This indicates a need for further facilitating the process to immigrate for entrepreneurial reasons.

Potentiality in crisis: Making and living the potential in Angola’s boom and bust

ABSTRACT This article documents the social generation and experience of potentiality in the context of radical uncertainty. After a booming decade, the oil bust in mid-2014 wrought havoc on Angola’s economy. Immigrant traders and entrepreneurs from West Africa responded to the crisis by assessing their possible livelihoods in and away from Angola. They further couched their search for economic potential in a discourse on Angola’s own potential for recovery. By (de)potentializing economies and livelihoods, traders entrenched potentiality, rather than actuality, as a pervasive aspect of their sociality and their ethical orientations.

Give me your rested, your wealthy, your educated few? A critical discussion of the current literature on immigrant self-employment

PurposeThe finding that immigrants are more likely to self-employ than natives has been consistently shown by different researchers. At the same time, many call for the prioritization of high-skilled immigration as they believe low-skilled entrepreneurs are not particularly innovative or high-growth-oriented. The purpose of this study is to critically review and synthesize the current literature on immigrant self-employment, paying particular attention to low-skilled immigrant entrepreneurship and the popular policy recommendation that high-skilled immigrants should be prioritized.Design/methodology/approachThe authors survey the existing literature on immigrant self-employment and discuss recurring data issues, how those issues have or have not been addressed, as well as how these data issues impact the validity of policy recommendations that favor high-skilled immigrants and disfavor low-skilled immigrants. In particular, the authors examine how length of stay in the host country and host country institutions impact immigrant self-employment, especially low-skilled immigrant self-employment. The authors also point out unintended consequences of low-skilled immigration.FindingsThe authors find data issues significantly impact the potential justifications behind calls to favor high-skilled immigrants. In particular, many researchers underestimate the positive impacts of low-skilled immigrant self-employment by not accounting for institutions and length of stay in the host country. The authors conclude with policy recommendations that prioritize high-skilled immigration should be re-examined in light of recurring omitted variable biases within previous studies and evidence of a number of positive unintended consequences associated with low-skilled migration.Originality/valueThe authors review current literature and discuss how important confounding variables, like the number of years an immigrant entrepreneur has lived in a host country and the institutions of a host country, make common policy recommendations suggesting prioritization of high-skilled immigration problematic. The authors also discuss potential solutions to these data issues, ways these issues have been solved already, and possible ways forward. Finally, after considering the literature, the authors offer our own set of policy recommendations.

Crowdfunding to overcome the immigrant entrepreneurs’ liability of outsidership: the role of internal social capital

Crowdfunding to overcome the immigrant entrepreneurs’ liability of outsidership: the role of internal social capital

“Resources at Hand, Head, and Heart”: ‘Heightened Habitus’ as an Endogenous Resource in Immigrant Entrepreneurial Bricolage

Abstract Bricolage is commonly recognized as a practice of non-traditional resource mobilization by immigrant entrepreneurs within their country of residence. When the host country is in an adversarial social and institutional context characterized by the liability of foreignness, we posit that accessing “resources at hand” in the external environment is hampered by anti-immigrant sentiments, both socially and institutionally. Through a rigorous analysis of eight cases of immigrant entrepreneurs and their South African-based enterprises, we apply Bourdieu’s theory of practice to examine the practice of bricolage at a more nuanced level. Our findings suggest that the localized prejudice against immigrants ‘otherizes’ their foreignness, and in turn, heightens the entrepreneurs’ awareness of their habitus. We argue that the immigrants’ ‘heightened habitus’ represents an internalization of both cognitive (i.e. resources at head) and adaptive (i.e. resources at heart) dispositions informed by the home country, and which serve as crucial endogenous resources by which to reimagine and reconstruct external resources accessed via local social capital. We present the novel theoretical contribution of immigrant entrepreneurial bricolage as the utilization of both endogenous resources at head and heart, which are activated by – and intended to overcome – their liability of foreignness. Our contribution also aims to reconstruct the frequently referenced exogenous resources at hand.

Outsidership, network positions and cooperation among internationalizing SMEs: An industry evolutionary perspective

Immigrant entrepreneurship, like other market entries, continues to be examined in most studies as an event, and not as a process of ongoing interactions and exchanges that would adequately address the influence on such a transition of collaborative engagements and of industry evolution in the host market. Adopting an industry evolutionary perspective, we examine the facilitating role played by cooperative strategies among immigrant-run SMEs. Using a small number of valued customer and competitor relationships, we draw from case studies to show how both immigrant and native run SMEs gain knowledge and resources through collaborative engagements to extend into new customer segments. These relationships enable them to mitigate their outsidership by adopting positions on the edges of networks that allow them to avoid competing directly against other internationalizing SMEs abroad or in their home markets. Using context to build an industry evolutionary perspective, we observe their entry into collaborative engagements with intermediaries in other business networks to build additional industry segments in the less understood maturing industry phase. This study shows how native-run Italian internationalizing SMEs accessed the resources of immigrant Chinese business networks and developed capabilities for mutual benefit.

Intra-Africa immigrant entrepreneurship for intra-African trade and economic development

Purpose: This paper aims to conceptualize intra-Africa immigrant entrepreneurship and provide evidence of its impact on intra-African trade and economic development. Immigrant entrepreneurship is often regarded as a key driver of international trade and economic development around the world; yet very little is known about intra-Africa immigrant entrepreneurship and its role in intra-African trade and economic development in Africa. Methodology: This paper applied a systematic review of literature methodology to provide insights into the role of intra-Africa immigrant entrepreneurship on trade and economic development of both host and home countries. Recommendations on how intra-Africa immigrant entrepreneurship can be used to promote intra-African trade and economic development are reviewed. Results: Policy guidelines that may increase the positive impact of immigrant entrepreneurs within the context of intra-African trade include immigration policies that attract high impact entrepreneurs, non-discriminatory support for high impact immigrant entrepreneurs as well as policies to strengthen the role of free trade agreements such as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Conclusion: We conclude that African regional integration to promote intra-Africa immigrant entrepreneurship development is a conduit for Africa’s long-term and sustainable economic development. Evidence of the positive impact of intra-Africa immigrant entrepreneurship on intra-African trade and economic development is scant. At the same time, the notions of intra-Africa immigrant entrepreneurship are not well documented in the literature. This paper provides arguments for the promotion of intra-Africa immigrant entrepreneurship as a tool to increase intra-African trade and economic development.

Transnational Entrepreneurs: Economic Livelihood Diversification

AbstractThis article examines transnational entrepreneurs’ decision-making and the selection process of economic livelihood diversification strategies in the special economic zone, Mukdahan, Thailand. The study utilizes qualitative research methods, namely, documentation, field study data collection, interviews, and both participative and non-participative observations. Significant participants include four officials and numbers of staff from the government and private sector, such as officials from the Provincial Administrative Organization, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Provincial Industry Council; staff from the business world, such as the hospitality industry; and fourteen transnational immigrant entrepreneurs working in the commerce, production, and/or service sectors. The results show that Vietnamese, Chinese, Chinese–Thai, and Laotian transnational immigrant entrepreneurs have applied different economic livelihood strategies, predominantly by exploiting opportunities in Mukdahan, offered by the Greater Mekong Subregion’s (GMS) economic policies. Nevertheless, as immigrants, access to political and social privileges and citizenship rights are limited. In these circumstances, transnational entrepreneurs struggle to secure their livelihoods in order to negotiate politically and be socially accepted. This study found that immigrant entrepreneurs apply four strategies to overcome the aforementioned limitations: (1) having different types of businesses, (2) building up business advantages, (3) offering various sales channels, and (4) establishing diverse social networks.

Barriers to immigrant Mexican entrepreneurs in the USA

Barriers to immigrant Mexican entrepreneurs in the USA

Barriers to immigrant Mexican entrepreneurs in the USA

Barriers to immigrant Mexican entrepreneurs in the USA

Centering the Experiences of Mexican and Central American Immigrant Entrepreneurs in An Examination of Sanctuary: Data, Measurement, and Methods Brief

Centering the Experiences of Mexican and Central American Immigrant Entrepreneurs in An Examination of Sanctuary: Data, Measurement, and Methods Brief

The Cost of Belonging: An Ethnography of Solidarity and Mobility in Beijing's Koreatown by Sharon J. Yoon

Reviewed by: The Cost of Belonging: An Ethnography of Solidarity and Mobility in Beijing's Koreatown by Sharon J. Yoon Minjeong Kim The Cost of Belonging: An Ethnography of Solidarity and Mobility in Beijing's Koreatown, by Sharon J. Yoon. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. 208 pages. ISBN: 9780197517901. $19.94 paperback. Questioning an optimistic picture of co-ethnic solidarity or suggesting immigrants' mixed relationships with co-ethnic communities are by no [End Page 356] means new in the immigration literature, but these topics have never been interrogated more directly than in Sharon Yoon's The Cost of Belonging: An Ethnography of Solidarity and Mobility in Beijing's Koreatown. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork comprising an original survey, in-depth interviews, and participant observations in different spaces in the Wangjing district in Beijing, Yoon presents a compelling portrayal of a transnational ethnic enclave that is both spatially segregated and socioeconomically stratified. Wangjing is a district in Beijing that grew with foreign investment from Korean multinational corporations, or chaebol, to use Yoon's choice of terminology. The district is home to the fastest-growing and largest overseas Korean community in the world, with over 200,000 Koreans living there as of 2015. Since China opened its market and relaxed its own domestic migration policy, three large streams of Korean migrants have come to Wangjing: Korean companies' "expat" managers, who often moved with their families for overseas assignments; South Korean grassroots migrants, who moved with their retirement savings to bet on the burgeoning Chinese market; and the Korean Chinese (joseonjok), who followed the economic opportunities of the transnational Korean economy. Yoon carefully illustrates how Koreans in Wangjing are unable to bond over their co-ethnic diasporic identity, instead grappling with immovable hierarchies, deep-seated suspicion, and quotidian tensions among these groups. One of Yoon's main arguments is that "diasporic identity politics are increasingly enmeshed in class conflict and market competition, and notions of nationhood and feelings of belonging are utilized to legitimate and perpetuate processes of stratification" (p. 16). Here, Yoon finds a connection between the economic privilege of the global middle class and the emotional privilege of having an uninterrupted sense of belonging to the ethnic space. In turn, Yoon critically exposes the financial precarity of middle-class immigrant entrepreneurs and the widening economic gaps and social divisions among Koreans. These are, Yoon contends, "a darker side" of transnationalism in Wangjing. In this highly mobile enclave, Korean chaebol and their subsidiaries work with their headquarters in Korea, ethnic churches receive financial and human resources from their Korean counterparts, and people frequently travel to and from Korea for business and pleasure. Imbricated with these transnational movements are stereotypes about the Korean Chinese among South Koreans and stereotypes about South Koreans among the Korean Chinese, both of which perpetuate suspicion and tension among these groups, preventing [End Page 357] them from cultivating deeper relationships. To a certain extent, the stunting of these relationships contributes to engendering divergent outcomes—Korean Chinese migrants finding upwardly mobile paths and South Korean grassroots migrants finding their dreams ruptured in Beijing's Koreatown. Among the unique aspects of Yoon's volume is that she delves into Koreans' lives in Wangjing through spaces. Yoon first lays out the physical space of the enclave, where groups are geographically segregated and socially stratified, by describing Wangjing New City, the hub of Koreatown; Nanhu, the Korean Chinese side of the enclave; and the luxurious Huading Complex, where South Korean expats are concentrated. Then, with commendable ethnographic work balanced with theoretical engagement, Yoon takes readers through three spaces, where the three Korean diasporic groups (Korean expat managers, South Korean grassroots migrants, and the Korean Chinese) clash with one another. First, in a chaebol company, a very rigid hierarchy is unabashedly displayed, with South Korean expat managers in the highest positions, South Korean locals below them, and Korean Chinese at the lowest levels. Yoon explains that Korean Chinese employees who use their knowledge of Chinese social norms to work as cultural intermediaries have been instrumental to the success of Korean chaebol in Chinese markets, but that such "soft skills" and emotional labor are rarely recognized as professional specialties and are...

Editorial

This issue consists of a book review and five articles that promote the practice of original research and policy discussions and provides a comprehensive forum devoted exclusively to the analysis of contemporaneous trends, migration patterns, and some of the most important migration-related issues in Africa. The review was made by Daniel Tevera on a book entitled “Citizen and Pariah”, by Vanya Gastrow. The reviewer made a critical and scholarly evaluation of the entire book. According to Tevera, the author informs the reader about the violent crime affecting Somali shopkeepers, their ability to access informal and formal justice mechanisms, and efforts to regulate their economic activities. The reviewer further indicates that, from the different chapters of the book it becomes clear that the author uses the term “pariah” as a social and geographical metaphor. The reviewer concludes that this book is an important contribution that is divided into three parts, consisting of twenty-one essays that delicately address the marginalization and victimization of immigrant entrepreneurs. The book clearly indicates that foreign shopkeepers with business interests in urban spaces have been victims of xenophobic attacks in most parts of South Africa.The first article by D e r e k Yu is entitled “The Impact of International Migration on Skills Supply and Demand in South Africa”. Using a quantitative method of research that involved the use and analysis of data from Census 2001 and 2011 as well as Community Surveys 2007 and 2016. This is the first study in South Africa that compares natives and immigrants with emigrants. The study analyzed the most recent census and survey data of the top five emigration destination countries and examined the well-being of South African emigrants in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, the United States of America, Australia, and Canada. The results of this study enhance the understanding of the impact of international migration on skills supply and demand in South Africa, and identify the skills needs of the country. The study also provides stakeholders and policymakers with insights to better identify the priority critical skills needs of the country – critical skills that are lost, and skills that are in great demand but in short supply – so that these skills needs can be prioritized when issuing work and residence permits to immigrants. The second article by Emmanuel Quarshie, Imhotep Paul Alagidede, Albert Duodu, and Edwin Teye Sosi is entitled “Moonlighting Behavior among Migrants: Determinants and Implications for Well-Being in South Africa”. The study applied quantitative research methods to measure the key determinants of moonlighting, defined as a “situation where an individual maintains primary employment and engages in additional work for pay”. The study also examined the differences that

URBAN immigrant diversity and entrepreneurial choice

Based on the national dynamic monitoring data of floating population, this paper investigates the impact mechanism and effect of immigrant diversity on entrepreneurial choice. The study found that the diversity of immigrants will significantly reduce the probability of individual entrepreneurship. The mechanism is that entrepreneurship itself is a relatively open process. In a complex and diverse city, the interpersonal psychological distance is widened and there is a lack of mutual trust and social identity, so entrepreneurship is significantly restrained In addition, this paper finds that compared with self-employed, entrepreneurs in the form of enterprise employers can benefit from diversity, which indicates that diversity promotes "Schumpeter" entrepreneurship; The impact of diversity will also vary according to educational skills and regional differences This paper empirically reveals the impact of diversity on Immigrant Entrepreneurship decision-making, which can provide profound Policy Enlightenment under the background of "Mobile China"

The career of Chef Zarela Martinez and a changing Mexican foodscape in New York City, 1981–2011

ABSTRACT This article discusses Mexican food’s proliferation in New York City from the 1980s onward and focuses specifically on the career of Zarela Martinez, an immigrant Mexican chef who achieved renown by serving haute regional Mexican dishes in her Manhattan restaurant. Martinez rose to celebrity through a confluence of circumstances and spent her career confronting stereotypes about Mexican food as inherently simple, fast, and cheap. Arguing instead for its elevation as a complex and refined global cuisine, Martinez became a culinary tastemaker and place-maker for Mexican-origin communities in New York. The 1980s and 1990s witnessed an influx of migration from Mexico to the Northeast and wider United States, and many of these newcomers opened their own bodegas, bakeries, taco trucks, and tortilla factories throughout New York City’s boroughs. Together with higher-end restaurants like Martinez’s, these entrepreneurs helped constitute a blossoming and heterogenous Mexican foodscape for a metropolis hungry for new and exciting food. Tracing Martinez’s career against this backdrop of migration and a growing national obsession with Mexican cuisine, this article fills gaps in the histories of Mexican food’s spread in the U.S. Northeast, Latinas’ food-related labor and creativity, and immigrant entrepreneurship.