- Author
- Title
- Studying 'up' in migrant entrepreneurship
- Subtitle
- Privileged migrant entrepreneurs in Wroclaw, Poland
- Supervisors
- Co-supervisors
- Award date
- 20 April 2021
- Number of pages
- 249
- Document type
- PhD thesis
- Faculty
- Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (FMG)
- Institute
- Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR)
- Abstract
-
While most studies of migrant entrepreneurship focus on disadvantaged migrants from the ‘global South’, this study does the opposite and explores the entrepreneurial activities of migrants from economically advanced countries. In doing so, the study fills a gap in the literature by studying ‘up’ (Nader 1972; Gusterson 1997; Aguiar 2012) and, subsequently, creates a counterpoint against which it critically examines the current ‘downward’ facing theoretical approaches within the field of migrant entrepreneurship. Moreover, this study carries wider implications in terms of global inequality by closely scrutinising entrepreneurs from some of the world’s wealthiest nations and positioning these findings against those from those from some of the poorest. Data is drawn primarily from 65 qualitative interviews with 41 migrant entrepreneurs from core-states (the UK, the USA, Italy, France, Germany, Ireland, Finland, Portugal, Canada, Australia, and Israel) and 24 from periphery-states (Ukraine, Belarus, India, Nigeria, and South Africa) in the shared ‘middle-ground’, semi-periphery environment of Wroclaw, Poland. Guided by the principles of Grounded Theory (Glaser & Strauss 1967), the study reveals previously invisible assumptions and structures, subsequently offering several empirical contributions to the field of migration and migrant entrepreneurship. In order to account for these findings, a theoretical contribution is also offered by proposing the concept of ‘Global-embeddedness’. In doing so, the study reinforces calls for scholars to ‘jettison’ the nation-state as the largest unit of analysis (Schiller & Faist 2013: 5) and extends such a multilateral, global approach into the field of migrant entrepreneurship.
- Persistent Identifier
- https://hdl.handle.net/11245.1/b7d3b7a6-afc3-4f9c-9fd2-cbae2ac39e70
- Downloads
-
Thesis (complete)
Front matter
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Settings & research design
Chapter 3: Revealing the hidden role of motivations in migrant entrepreneurship
Chapter 4: Migrant entrepreneurs’ access to resources: The other side of the coin?
Chapter 5: The opportunity structure: Beyond the nation-state
Chapter 6: Ethnic enclaves in reverse?
Chapter 7: Equal players in an unequal game? Power and privilege
Chapter 8: Theoretical explanation: Global-embeddedness
Chapter 9: Conclusions
Bibliography
Appendices A-C; Summary; Samenvatting; Streszczenie; Biography; Acknowledgements
Disclaimer/Complaints regulations
If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library, or send a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible.