Summary:
In public discourse, entrepreneurship is often celebrated as an opportunity for migrants to mobilise resources from their country of origin and achieve independence and success. Yet, this risks reducing migrant entrepreneurs to their national origin, economic potential, and individual efforts. It thus tends to invisibilise the multi-sitedness of mobile biographies and the unequal opportunities different groups of migrants face in pursuing the entrepreneurial “dream”. Current scientific debates mirror these issues. This thesis seeks to offer a more nuanced view by examining the complex cross-border trajectories of migrant entrepreneurs and the conditions under which they can use resources that result thereof. It contributes to the field of transnational migrant entrepreneurship by providing new avenues to understand the dynamic and unequal spatialities of the phenomenon. It thus challenges individualistic and neoliberal discourses of entrepreneurship, and migrant “integration” more generally.
On a theoretical-conceptual level, this dissertation takes inspiration from different perspectives, such as the mobilities paradigm, intersectional and time-geographic approaches towards inequalities in transnational fields, feminist scholarship, and theoretical debates around structure and agency. Methodologically, it builds on a qualitative case study in Zurich between 2018 and 2020. It consists of 34 biographic interviews, using geographical maps, with different individuals who have migration experience and conduct entrepreneurial activities across national borders. The aim was not statistical representation, but to contrast a variety of situations. Because most participants have multiple migration experiences, are in their early stages of entrepreneurship and female, this study provides insights into understudied groups. The interviews are complemented by ethnographic observations within a migrant-run organisation promoting entrepreneurship. Following participatory approaches, research was conducted with rather than on the organisation in order to create a space for mutual learning.
The analyses presented in this dissertation nuance and challenge current debates on migrant entrepreneurship. First, by exploring the complex trajectories of research participants, it reveals that most of them are connected to multiple countries where they previously lived and/or explore new ones for their entrepreneurial projects. This underlines that reducing migrant entrepreneurs to their national origin does not correspond to the dynamic spatialities of migration processes and thus risks reproducing ethnic biases and stereotyping. Second, this thesis highlights that transnational resources do not automatically lead to entrepreneurial success and that migrants are not a homogenous group. In particular, female and non-European research participants who arrive through family reunification and asylum channels, and who encounter barriers to directly entering the Swiss labour market, also struggle to access local and distant spaces for their entrepreneurial activities. Their difficulties do not indicate a lack of courage or competences and, moreover, not only stem from their migration experiences, but rather emerge from different spheres of individuals’ livelihoods, such as family situation and socio-economic position, as well the intersection of different forms of exclusions. Finally, this research points towards the creative strategies of research participants to overcome challenges over time, both at the individual and collective level. The latter is illustrated through the migrant-run organisation under study, which challenges deficit-oriented views on migration and creates a sense of community to counter experiences of loneliness. However, its promotion of entrepreneurship resonates with the neoliberal logic of focusing on the individual’s responsibility for professional success. The thesis underlines that when structural conditions remain unaddressed, there is a risk that inequalities and precarities are replicated within the pursuit of the entrepreneurial “dream”.
The results of this doctoral research are presented in four articles published in peer-reviewed journals, as well as a comic booklet. The aim of the latter was to move beyond traditional forms of scientific communication, to value the knowledge different people shared during this research, and to create new spaces for critical thinking on migrant entrepreneurship beyond academia.
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