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Using content analysis of Buffalo media and 20 semi-structured interviews, I document the use of immigrant entrepreneurialism as a neoliberal urban governance strategy. Racism evasiveness is central to this strategy. I observe that immigrants and refugees are treated as symbolic capital as part of a neighborhood branding strategy that involves parlaying diversity into material benefits. I call this strategy global appeal. Buffalo's resurgence is a feel-good story that draws on neoliberal market logics, colorblindness, and diversity ideology. These stories allow Whites to evade racism when discussing neighborhood renewal and racist comments. Drawing on Bourdieu's theory of symbolic capital, Bell's concept of neighborhood frames, and Beeman's theory of racism evasiveness, I argue that immigrants and refugees are used as symbolic capital to construct a neighborhood brand. This is part of a strategy of roll out neoliberalism that relies on two neighborhood frames: revitalization and diversity. The revitalization frame credits immigrants and refugees with contributing to the neighborhood through homeownership, entrepreneurialism, and school enrollment. The diversity frame celebrates people of different races, cultures, and ethnicities coming together while both evading and obscuring racism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The article aims to identify market entrance barriers faced by migrant entrepreneurs and reasons for the attractiveness of specific places when starting a business in so-called peripheral regions. Research Design & Methods: This article presents the results of a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews, for which 21 migrant entrepreneurs were interviewed in 2019 and 2020 in Opolskie Voivodeship. Findings: The findings suggest the respondents selected the Opolskie Voivodeship for business activities on the bases of socio-spatial embeddedness. Neither the entrepreneurial ecosystem nor the promising economic situation were identified as meaningful for starting or growing businesses. Implications & Recommendations: Drawing on the findings, the authors developed practical implications for policymakers. Attention should be given to tools attracting migrants to peripheral regions. Established migrant entrepreneurs in peripheral regions could be integrated into a regional attraction concept and make the local ecosystem more inclusive for this group of entrepreneurs. They may be turned into practice by giving them the right to member and participate in official networks of the economic development agency or the chamber of commerce. In general, the openness of migrants to reach out to support infrastructures for business creation should be actively addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst it is acknowledged that refugees are more likely to select into self-employment due to discrimination and labour market exclusion, we know little about how their ventures perform over time. To address this gap, we draw upon qualitative longitudinal evidence gathered in 2010 and 2018 in the UK to explore the outcomes of their ventures and what strategies they have put in place. We argue that the trajectories of refugee-owned businesses are explained by their structural position and the strategies, resources, and business support networks, highlighting that refugee entrepreneurs re-work their condition in a manner that is much more proactive and resilient than suggested by extant portrayals of refugee entrepreneurship. Our analysis sheds new light on the dynamics of refugee business development and encourages a more nuanced theoretical approach to evaluate these enterprises as vehicles for integration against the backdrop of neoliberal Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The small business sector has been identified as an essential component of the global economy, especially in the developing economies, where it plays a significant role in addressing job creation and poverty. However, the COVID 19 pandemic and its attendant lockdown restrictions have brought untold devastation to the sector forcing many out of operation, crippling business operations and financial viability. We seek to identify the role and impact of government relief measures in helping immigrant-owned businesses in South Africa to deal with the impact of the pandemic on their businesses. Primary data was collected using an electronic questionnaire administered to 260 foreign business owners in South Africa. The data was cleaned and statistically analysed using IBM SPSS version 27. We interpreted and discussed the results using the realistic conflict theory. Though a vast majority of the businesses (89%) reported that the pandemic had a very severe impact on their financial sustainability and liquidity, none of them reported that they benefitted from any of the South African government business support packages during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: Venture capital (VC) firms predominantly source investments from local networks within tight geographic bounds. Against that tendency, VCs are increasingly investing internationally—but with substantial heterogeneity across firms in extent, location, and success. We propose a mechanism that explains these patterns. The ties VCs form to immigrant entrepreneurs when investing domestically provide access to the knowledge and connections of those immigrants, which facilitates VC investments in the immigrants' homelands. Using data on U.S. VC activity in India, we find that firms invest in more Indian startups as their ties to Indian entrepreneurs in the United States increase—particularly in the Indian region where immigrants originate and when the VC faces heightened domestic competition. Such ties also enhance the odds of successful exit for the VC's Indian investments. Managerial Summary: Why are venture capital (VC) firms increasingly investing in foreign startups, and why do these firms differ in the location and success of such international investments? We demonstrate that the ties to immigrant entrepreneurs VCs establish when investing domestically provide knowledge and connections that enable future VC investments in the immigrants' homelands. Using data on U.S. VC firms, we find that the more ties to Indian immigrant entrepreneurs a firm develops, the more it subsequently invests in Indian startups. This effect is stronger when the VC firm faces heightened domestic competition (a push effect) and in the specific regions of India where the immigrants originate (a pull effect). Domestic ties to Indian immigrants also help U.S. VCs make more successful investments in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines how culinary infrastructure encouraged and impeded immigrant entrepreneurship in provisioning Toronto before Canada adopted an official policy of multiculturalism in the 1970s. Culinary infrastructure refers broadly to facilities and technologies – both physical and knowledge-based – that undergird food systems. The Anglo-dominated infrastructural hub of the St. Lawrence market provided the central food retailing space during the Victorian era, then became a wholesale depot in the first half of the twentieth century, and finally gentrified into a tourist market in the 1970s. Nevertheless, until the belated rise of supermarkets, most residents purchased food from immigrant entrepreneurs, largely pushcart vendors in the nineteenth century, and increasingly small shopkeepers and street markets such as Kensington in the twentieth. This essay concludes that although the allocation and regulation of markets were intended to assimilate immigrant foodways into an idealized Anglo city, newcomers actively shaped Toronto's culinary geography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study explores the key contributory factors in the success of immigrant entrepreneurs in disseminating technical knowledge in host economies. Based on a study of the Lyon Barcelona textile printing firm in Premià de Mar, we show how the introduction of screen printing in 1933 eventually stimulated the creation of a cluster specialised in the manufacture of printing moulds. The knowhow provided by the new technique was transferred from the factory itself and disseminated to new small businesses that were set up in and around the town of Premià. Thanks to the vision of an immigrant entrepreneur, who saw the potential of the new business inside the pre-existing industrial framework in Catalonia, and his close collaboration with local managers, this cross-border business initiative had a decisive impact on the host economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the Economic Recession in the late 2000s, many neighbourhood coffee bars in Northern and Central Italy have been taken over by Chinese immigrants. This article investigates why neighbourhood bars, which are thought to be at the heart of Italian urban culture, have become a new business niche for Chinese immigrants in spite of overwhelmingly anti‐immigrant discourse. By elucidating the political economy of Italy's coffee bar industry and restructuring of its Chinese ethnic economy, it shows how the formation of this new immigrant business niche is a form of historical contingency embedded in a set of structural transformation processes. The broader purpose of the article is to contribute to an understanding of the structural mechanisms of embedded immigrant entrepreneurship and immigrants' economic incorporation, as well as to debates on the roles of immigrants in the new urban economy and related local cultures of a multi‐ethnic European nation‐state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research note uses the rise of Aw Boon Haw's dynastic family businesses across Asia to illustrate Chinese migrant entrepreneurs' business development and dynamism. Although it is known that the management and operation of Chinese migrant family businesses do have disadvantages, there is substantial evidence that family control and network capital can facilitate their business endeavors. Through the case of the Aw family business, it was found that by using key strategies of family control and its network capital, even though their migrant background posed multi-layered disadvantages, the Aw family was able to rise from rags to riches in the medicine and newspaper businesses. Not only did their migrant background not restrict Aw family business growth, it fostered its expansion in the region and the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adversity is a multifaceted problem. Yet, extant studies view adversity unidimensionally. We explore how complementary dimensions of adversity faced by refugee entrepreneurs affect their resilience. Refugees face adversity due to both the forced nature of their migration and their foreignness in the host country. Because of the value of venturing as an expression of resilience, we focus specifically on the refugees' venture performance. We argue that the inability to return to their homelands incentivizes refugees to integrate in the host community. Our results suggest that, while forced migration contributes to refugees' initial underperformance relative to other immigrants, this additional dimension of adversity also helps them overcome it through deeper integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we wish to appraise how opportunities for migrant economies and their role in urban development may differ among various city types. The article contributes to the debate about the relationship of migrant economies and urban development and takes up two perspectives: it examines local opportunity structures for migrant entrepreneurs and sheds light on migrant economies' potential for urban development. To address the many interrelated historical and contemporary processes in cities that influence migrant economies, we adopt the rescaling and the mixed embeddedness approaches. Studies on the role of migrant economies in urban development have predominantly focused on metropolises. Based on mixed-methods case studies in two medium-sized German cities, we ask how different city types influence the opportunities and potential of migrant economies for urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research shows that the foreign born utilize both local and long-distance social relationships to become entrepreneurs, affecting immigrants' chances at upward mobility and their contributions to economic development. Scholars have yet to assess how African American entrepreneurs take part in similar types of geographically dispersed business communities. Using multi-level social network analyses and OLS regressions to compare the geography of buyer-supplier ties originating from one immigrant neighborhood and one African American neighborhood in Chicago, this article highlights a unique mechanism that places African Americans at a disadvantage compared to immigrants: a lack of geographic diversity in African American social capital. Immigrant entrepreneurs' social networks, unlike African Americans' networks, connect the foreign born to more people in different places, enabling them to circumvent the limitations of their local communities and accrue more business assets. Contrary to existing research, many foreign-born business owners in this study relied on intra-national rather than local or transnational social ties. These findings challenge researchers to reevaluate the geographic foundations of immigrant and African American entrepreneurship and reexamine how ethnic minority entrepreneurship affects patterns of social stratification and economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precarious labour research has highlighted the multidimensional factors shaping migrants' vulnerability to labour exploitation. This article takes a different approach by attending to the possible reciprocity in labour relations– despite unequal power dynamics– particularly when workplaces are small and involve daily interactions between migrant workers and migrant employers. Methodology is based on observations in Chinese-run retail shops and restaurants in Santiago, and interviews with Chinese employers and their Latin American migrant employees of diverse backgrounds. Proposing the concept of "precarious labour relations", we examine the independent and shared uncertainties between migrant employers and workers who are differently marginalized through race/migrant status axes in Chile. Analyzing dynamics of hierarchy, (mis)trust, and reciprocity in how these actors negotiate precarity and security as workers and/or migrants, we complicate dichotomies of exploitation and resistance in migrant labour research, by foregrounding the multidimensional relationship between employers and workers when both are racialized migrants and minorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using recent survey data, this paper examines access to financing by immigrant business owners. We hypothesize that immigrant and Canadian-born owners finance their businesses in significantly different ways and that immigrant-owned small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have more difficulty accessing financial capital. The results suggest that, after adjusting for firm and owner characteristics, financing sources for growth financing tend to be similar for the two groups. Although immigrant owners—notably those in Canada for more than 20 years—were less likely than Canadian-born owners to seek financing from any source, their applications were as likely to be approved. Both immigrant and Canadian-born owners reported that, among seven potential obstacles to firm growth presented in the survey, "access to financing" was the least important. The study finds only weak evidence to support the hypothesis that access to financial capital is a more serious issue among immigrant-owned SMEs than among SMEs with Canadian-born owners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: We propose that the liability of foreignness (LOF) applies to individuals and not only to firms. To identify such a liability, we study entrepreneurial firms created by natives and immigrants. Firms created by immigrants have a lower rate of survival than those founded by natives. Work experience in the host country and size of the immigrant's national community improves the chances of survival of firms founded by immigrants, in particular, for firms founded by immigrants from institutionally distant countries. In contrast, the impact of firm age on survival is not significantly different for firms created by natives and immigrants. This indicates that learning by individuals before the creation of firms is more important than learning that occurs at the firm level after firms have been created. Managerial Summary: We explore how the characteristics of individuals running firms affect firm performance. We focus on foreignness and study the chances of survival of firms created by immigrants. Firms created by individuals who have longer work experience in the host country and who are integrated in larger national communities are more likely to survive than those created by their counterparts with less experience and smaller communities. The effect is stronger for immigrants from countries with different institutions to those of the host country. This indicates that, when choosing new countries to operate in, it is important to carefully choose the management team and the location within the host country, in particular, if the countries being considered are relatively dissimilar to the firm's home country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family capital can provide positive resources for entrepreneurship; however, it can also bring negative consequences that hinder the growth of a new venture. We investigated how entrepreneurs experienced and managed the positives and negatives of family capital through in-depth semi-structured interviews with Chinese immigrants who landed in Canada between 2000 and 2014. We contribute to the entrepreneurship literature by highlighting the paradoxical nature of family capital, and by identifying five strategies that entrepreneurs employed to manage the paradox. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This article analyses how the gendered and classed positions of migrant women explain the meanings of becoming an entrepreneur and the role of their spouses in their occupational trajectories. Using a translocational positionality approach, the article challenges the claim that women escape patriarchal domination by establishing their own businesses. The narratives of 35 Latin American women entrepreneurs in Spain reveal that becoming an entrepreneur is conditioned by class‐based ideas of masculinity and femininity. I argue that middle‐class Latin American immigrant women become entrepreneurs to promote their spouse's career advancement while conforming to class‐based norms of femininity. In contrast, lower class Latin American women view the business as a space of autonomy and occupational upward mobility that nevertheless also complies with working‐class definitions of femininity. The policy implications of these findings relate to making class aspirations central to the support of labour market integration and empowerment of migrant women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explores how ethnic migrant entrepreneurs (EMEs) from countries with a range of cultural differences to the host country exploit entrepreneurial opportunities in a single host country. Specifically, this study investigates: (1) the types of opportunities exploited by EMEs, and (2) the way they exploit these entrepreneurial opportunities. This study offers a contextualised insight on the link between entrepreneurial opportunity exploitation and cultural differences (operationalised using cultural distance, or CD). In particular, through highlighting the moderating role of CD, this study has developed a matrix of entrepreneurial opportunities based on cultural differences for EMEs, which can be useful for both EMEs and the host country's administrative agencies. By accounting for culture in articulating the findings, this research contributes to theory by bridging the institutional-individual divide in entrepreneurship discussion through an institutional lens. A practical implication of this study is a delineation of opportunities according to cultural differences, which is beneficial for entrepreneurs across borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El artículo presenta información acerca de las actividades nacionales de la organización española Movimiento por la Paz, el Desarme y la Libertad (MPDL). El Día Internacional de la Paz tuvo lugar el 21 de septiembre de 2017. Se celebró el Día Internacional de la Eliminación de la Violencia contra el Mujer el 25 de noviembre de 2017. Se presenta información acerca de la Conferencia MIX 2017, acerca de la migración y el emprendimiento, el 17 de octubre.

This paper seeks to identify the characteristics of refugee-entrepreneurial startups, which distinguish them from other immigrant entrepreneurial ventures. The author employed a single case analysis as a means of qualitative research into the phenomenon under study, from the perspective of social capital theory. A typical case of a refugee entrepreneur was selected based on his propensity to tell his story in a way that transparently reveals the various peculiarities of his entrepreneurial behavior. The case study involved the use of interviews with key individuals, the review of printed materials, and member checking. The findings revealed five distinctive attributes that characterized that startup and which corresponded to the three dimensions of social capital. Those attributes were: a ‘one-way-ahead’ attitude, a pseudo family business perception, collective bootstrapping, a distinct network structure, and opportunity-seizing proliferation, thereby depicting how social capital is used by refugee-entrepreneurs to maximize the pool of opportunities in their host nations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Immigrant entrepreneurship is important to local and regional economies, cultural identity, placemaking, and tourism. Meanwhile, regional conditions, such as the development of suburban immigrant gateway communities and increases in the cost of business ownership, complicate local economic development efforts in urban ethnic districts. This research is presented as a mixed–methods case study of Devon Avenue in Chicago, IL, home to a significant concentration of South Asian–owned immigrant businesses. Challenges and pressures facing businesses are examined through merchant surveys and interviews. Observations reinforce the notion that cultural competency and strong grassroots leadership is vital for economic development planning so that “capitalizing” on an ethnic heritage does not become a tool for commodification or commercial gentrification. Agencies must also be mindful of the impacts associated with suburbanization of immigrant communities and take a long-term, regional approach to planning in ethnic commercial corridors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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There is limited research on similarities and differences in entrepreneurial experiences of first and second generation immigrant entrepreneurs. Using in-depth interviews with Lebanese entrepreneurs in two Canadian cities, we analyze how entrepreneurs belonging to two different generations of immigrants experience and enact opportunity identification and assessment, and business development and operation. The analysis shows that first and second generation immigrant entrepreneurs diverge in their views of macro-institutional structures (such as regulation), risk, trust, and the role of divine providence in the entrepreneurial venture. The findings highlight the importance of understanding how first generation immigrant entrepreneurs' past frames - developed in the pre-migration context - interact with the environment in the country of settlement in shaping entrepreneurial undertaking. The study also highlights second generation immigrant entrepreneurs' perceived similarities to and differences from mainstream entrepreneurs. Implications for research and policy are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The main goal of the article is to discuss the theoretical relationship between immigrant entrepreneurship and immigrant's economic adaptation. Research Design & Methods: The paper reviews the theoretical and empirical literature on immigrant entrepreneurship and economic adaptation of immigrants in a host country. Then the paper develops testable propositions and a theoretical model for future empirical research on this topic. Findings: The paper describes three main potential outcomes of immigrant economic adaptation through entrepreneurship: segmented assimilation, transnationalism and provisional business project strategy. Implications & Recommendations: Understanding the factors that contribute to adaptation of immigrant entrepreneurs is crucial from policy-making perspective, as immigrant entrepreneurship is increasingly promoted as a viable strategy for economic adaptation for new immigrant groups in major host countries. Contribution & Value Added: The theoretical relationship between immigrant entrepreneurship and economic adaptation remains underaddressed in the literature. Thus, the paper contributes to the knowledge on economic adaptation of immigrants, by proposing a model of immigrant entrepreneurship evolution and development. The model stresses interrelations between immigrant entrepreneurship and economic adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism embodies flows of tourists, capital and information, as well as migration, including migrants who operate businesses. How do migrant entrepreneurs negotiate social ties and economic activities in their destinations? To answer this question, the paper draws on Polanyi’s work on embeddedness to explore migrant tourism entrepreneurs (MTEs) and their modes of integration in the practice of social and economic life. We argue that MTEs are situated in a complex matrix in which they must build economic connections with locals and government officials, yet maintain a respectful distance with local groups, and develop embedded ties with other fellow migrants and tourists. Embeddedness, juxtaposed with distance, indicates that in tourist destinations, mixed patterns of economic and social relations significantly influence MTEs’ social and economic life. A Polanyian perspective on embeddedness can provide useful theoretical tenets to understand entrepreneurial activities in a mobile world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigrant groups often pursue entrepreneurial endeavors in their new home country. Even though both immigrant entrepreneurship and organizational identity have received scholarly attention, there has been little systematic exploration of identity strategies pursued by immigrant-owned organizations. In this article, we develop a theoretical framework that draws on the concepts of liability of foreignness and social identity theory in the context of immigrant entrepreneurship. Our framework explores how immigrant entrepreneurs may negotiate identities for their firms through the development of specific identity strategies that confirm or underplay their national/ethnic identities in order to survive in their immediate environment. We develop a model that shows how these confirmations or underplaying strategies work both for firms that have an individualistic entrepreneurial orientation, as well as those with a collective/ associative entrepreneurial orientation. We also suggest two contextual moderators to this relationship: (1) the image of the founder's country of origin, and (2) the presence of immigrant networks in the host country, which may alter the effectiveness of identity strategies in terms of organizational mortality outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to the research exploring the social and economic factors shaping the performance of immigrant-run firms. Drawing upon human and social capital theory and assimilation theory, we investigate differences in performance measured as revenue growth in a comparative study of native and immigrant CEOs. Following 50,002 small firms in Sweden over 4 years, we find distinct patterns in both firm size and revenue growth between firms managed by immigrants and by natives. While firms run by second-generation immigrants from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries exhibit higher growth rates than natives, the reverse is true for second-generation immigrants from non-OECD countries, suggesting that economic integration in terms of small business growth immigrants in Sweden is characterized by segmented rather than universal assimilation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study which examines the contrasting entrepreneurship experiences and consequences of return migrants in migrant-origin villages in Java, Indonesia. It looks at how social relationships and networks in these villages can contribute to local entrepreneurship and socio-economic equality. It also examines the importance of transnational social networks in facilitating migration decisions and migrant activism.

The literature on ethnic entrepreneurship emphasizes the role of ethnicity in facilitating group differences in enterprise based on access to ethnic-based resources. This treatment tends to conflate family-based resources with those of ethnicity. Using a framework derived from intersectionality theory, this qualitative study investigates how two aspects of the household economy, namely household composition and family ideology, shape intra-group differences among fifty middle-class Mexican-origin entrepreneurs. Findings reveal that household class and gender dynamics shape access to three family-based resources that facilitate enterprise: family labour, entrepreneurial capital, and inheritance; differences in entrepreneurial activity between family members exceed in some cases those observed between ethnic groups. This study reveals that intersectional dimensions of identity and collectivity influence entrepreneurial outcomes within ethnic households. This study encourages researchers to consider how multiple and intersecting dimensions of identity combine for a more complete understanding of American enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of businesses established by migrants to the UK traditionally stressed co-ethnic relationships as economic resources. More recent work identifies a new ethnic economy characterized by migrants’ common experiences, with ethnicity playing less of a role. The present study complements this newer perspective through investigation of the experiences of forty-nine business owners and sixty of their workers in the West Midlands. Economic relationships were central to the operation of migrant firms, and a minority of firms escaped from sectors traditionally dominated by migrant firms. Yet substantial continuity was also evident, including exclusion from the mainstream on ethnic lines and relations with workers characterized by informality. Migrant business is evolving but it retains many of its features; this pattern can be explained by combining the mixed embeddedness theory of the enterprise with labour process analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We examined immigrant entrepreneurship from a social psychological perspective with an emphasis on Social Identity Theory (SIT). Immigrant entrepreneurs from across Canada (N=122) completed a questionnaire about their experiences as Canadian business owners. The results showed that business decisions are, indeed, related to social psychological influences. The use of social capital, the strength of cultural and national identity, acculturation and perceived discrimination were related to decisions made throughout the course of the business, from the initial motivations for pursuing entrepreneurship, to the intention to continue running a business in Canada. Overall, being an immigrant entrepreneur had social psychological implications and, in the future, the influence of identity, acculturation and discrimination among this group deserves further attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ghanaian population in the Netherlands is relatively well-endowed in terms of human capital. In addition, a large number of them came when deindustrialisation had run its course and the Dutch economy, the service sector in particular, started growing again after 1985. On the basis of the Mixed Embeddedness model, we expected that the combination of, on average, higher levels of human capital and the transformation of the (urban)economy, would lead to rather different patterns of entrepreneurship when compared to their predecessors who came as guest workers. We explored this issue using interviews with 84 Ghanaian entrepreneurs in the Netherlands. Our data only partly corroborated our hypotheses. Notwithstanding, the higher levels of human capital and the shifts in the urban economies, a significant number of Ghanaian entrepreneurs still end up in the lower echelons of the opportunity structure. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the social uses of immigrant business spaces that correspond to different stages of breakout, or the movement of a business from a limited, primarily co-ethnic customer base to a wider, primarily non-co-ethnic customer base. Using participant observation and interview data from three Latino immigrant-dominated shopping malls in the USA, we assess how the degree of breakout at each mall and the resulting degree of heterogeneity in customers is associated with different kinds of social uses of the spaces. We find that Latino immigrant business spaces that have yet to begin a transition towards breakout are important sites of bonding for Latino immigrants and serve to strengthen their ethnic solidarity. Latino immigrant business spaces that are in the midst of transitioning towards breakout facilitate casual interaction between Latino immigrant and non-Latino residents, while those Latino immigrant entrepreneur spaces that have achieved breakout act as spaces of cultural consumption by non-Latinos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on migrant livelihoods in South Africa reveals links between social exclusion and migrant ‘cosmopolitan tactics’, including multi-sited socialities, diverse spatial business strategies and orientations precluding integration into a ‘xenophobic’ host society. Drawing on 10 months of ethnographic research, this study explores how Somali migrants’ business practices and tactics of mobility within and beyond Gauteng Province, South Africa (which encompasses Johannesburg and Pretoria) articulate with both broader transnational flows and investments in the local economy. Since the end of apartheid, Somalis and other migrants from the Horn of Africa have carved out an economic niche in peri-urban townships where high risk and frequent movement characterise workers’ lives. The Somali enclave in the neighbourhood of Mayfair, Johannesburg, links local and national circulations of people, goods and money to international circuits of the Somali ethnic economy—an economy that also involves non-Somali groups, mainly from Kenya and Ethiopia. These diverse dynamics of human mobility and financial circulation complicate bounded conceptualisations of transnationalism and also illustrate how tactical cosmopolitanisms may be grounded in spatial and social arrangements. The convergence of migrant mobility and financial flows produces distinctive patterns of livelihood embedded in a multi-scalar geography of movement, remittance, investment, risk and opportunity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the influence that immigrant entrepreneurs' home and host countrydifferences have on their business growth. Building on organizational learning and prospect theory literature, we suggest that: (1) knowledge-related differences have a negative, while (2) economicsrelated differences have a mixed effect on immigrants' business growth (positive when these are in the favor of host and negative when these are in the favor of home country). Employing social categorization literature, we also contend that these impacts are moderated by (a) naturalization (b) home to host geographical distance, and (c) the size of the immigrant entrepreneur's diaspora in the host country. We test our theory using a sample of immigrant entrepreneurs operating in the remittances market and our findings are mostly consistent with the predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- This chapter highlights the agency of Nigerian immigrant business owners in constructing their business-related social networks. Literature on immigrant business owners emphasizes their social network embeddedness as a key explanatory factor in their economic integration. I show here ways in which members of one immigrant group purposely shape these networks into the most advantageous form: impersonal/socially distant suppliers, personal/socially close employees, and impersonal/socially distant customers. Methodology/approach -- Data for the chapter come from 36 semistructured qualitative interviews conducted in New York City with Nigerian small business owners and participant observation in their businesses. Findings -- Nigerian immigrant business owners in New York tend over time to shift from business networks of primarily Nigerian or other socially close suppliers, employees, and customers, to networks of mainly socially close employees, and socially distant suppliers and customers. Research limitations/implications -- The chapter's concern is limited to Nigerian immigrant business owners in New York City. Others in other places may behave differently. Originality/value -- The literature on immigrant business owners is dominated by Asian and Latin American examples while this chapter features the experiences of Nigerian immigrants. It also presents a group that does not fit the widely accepted disadvantage hypothesis of immigrant self-employment. Finally, where many studies treat social networks as static structures, this chapter emphasizes the agency of immigrants in altering the composition of their networks to maximize their position in it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a large scale and longitudinal analysis of business survival patterns in Milan (Italy), which is based on data drawn from the business registers. It examines the role played by the country of birth of the entrepreneur in explaining business longevity. The study controls, by means of coarsened exact matching, for a set of individual, firm and context variables that have been found to impact on firm survival prospects. They include attributes of the owner (age and gender) and contextual conditions (industry and year of the start-up). Results suggest that, all other individual and environmental factors being equal, migrant-owned firms generally have better survival prospects than their native-owned counterparts. More in detail, compared to Italian-owned firms, business run by individuals born in Egypt, Morocco, Peru and Albania display significantly lower failure rates; only Chinese-owned firms are less likely to endure. Implications of the findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose - This study considers an under-explored pathway of immigrant business expansion beyond contemporary models of ethnic entrepreneurship. Methodology/approach - We push against dominant theories of immigrant adaptation and small business, such as assimilation theory, to explain a rise of franchised small businesses among Indian Americans. We combine two cases on Indian American small business ownership, based on years of qualitative fieldwork each. Findings - Indian Americans have forged a new path of immigrant business growth beyond either enclave or middleman minority businesses. The growth of franchised stores by immigrants remains underexplored in the immigration and work literature. Their growth in the industry signals a type of mobility, by moving more into corporate models of business ownership and performance. Yet, their success has depended on many of the same mechanisms that define lower end, informal ethnic businesses, such as a reliance on ethnic social capital for information and financing, strategies to avoid racism, co-ethnic labor, and the like. Research limitations - Like any qualitative study, it is limited by its lack of breadth. But, given that it combines two cases, it compensates for this challenge more than otherwise. Originality/value - This chapter furthers the argument that immigrant mobility does not necessarily mean assimilation and in fact can represent a collective response against assimilationist tendencies. This continued collective strategy to mobility is all the more necessary in the face of neoliberal economic models that place greater burdens on individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]