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The literature on ethnic entrepreneurship has focused on structural factors, group characteristics or a combination of both when explaining the entry and/or success of different ethnic groups in/to self-employment. While the active involvement of individuals has often been noted, agency has been under-theorised, and frequently conflated with what are considered as ‘cultural’ factors. This article explores the question of agency in ethnic entrepreneurship by looking at how entrepreneurs access and mobilise different kinds of resources. Using a forms-of-capital approach, the article draws on qualitative data from the UK and Spain, and looks at how entrepreneurs mobilise cultural, social and economic resources in structural contexts that include constraining as well as enabling features. Our findings show that the entrepreneurs are active agents who play an important role in shaping ethnic businesses. However, their agency varies significantly depending on the extent to which entrepreneurs have access to different kinds of resources, which is closely linked to their socioeconomic position. The article contributes to the literature through its direct engagement with the question of agency in ethnic entrepreneurship, and by highlighting the relevance of social class in entrepreneurial processes.

It is well established that international migration involves not only geographical but also social mobility, as migrants achieve an improved socioeconomic position through increased economic opportunities, or experience downwards mobility as a result of not being able to transfer their economic, social or educational resources to the receiving country context. While the social mobility that accompanies migration is often considered in the migration literature, the implications for migrants’ social class positioning has been less of a focus. This paper addresses this gap by looking at how female migrants in the UK evaluate social class trajectories as part of their biographical narratives. The paper brings wider sociological debates about class into a discussion about female migrants’ socioeconomic trajectories and social status. By considering material as well as symbolic aspects of class divisions along with the transnational context in which migrants are embedded, the paper highlights the complexity of how migrants are positioned in class terms. It also looks at how class is subjectively interpreted, and outlines different ways in which migrants evaluate their class trajectories, for instance by conceiving of migration from a long-term perspective and in the context of the family unit, by emphasising different quality-oflife aspects, and by challenging dominant meanings associated with class hierarchies. The paper emphasises the intersection of class and gender in female migrants’ experiences, and argues that subjective accounts of class provide an excellent opportunity to explore the complexity of how class is experienced in the context of international migration.

This article considers the role of public discourses in biographical narratives by focusing on discourses of integration and migrant narratives in a contemporary Swedish context. In particular, it explores how public discourses that emphasise migrants’ agency and responsibility to ‘integrate’ help frame the ways in which migrants present themselves. While recognising the importance of biographical research for exploring migrants’ experiences and bringing their voices to the fore, the article argues that we need to pay more attention to how public discourses constrain narratives. It proposes that migrant narratives studied in their social and political context can be used to understand inequalities not only by gaining knowledge of lived experiences of inequalities, but also by considering how dominant discourses help to normalise some of those experiences, and as such may contribute to the reproduction of inequalities.