Diversity, economic development and new migrant entrepreneurs

Trevor Jones, Monder Ram and Maria Villares-Varela
Additional contact information
Trevor Jones: University of Birmingham, UK
Monder Ram: University of Birmingham, UK
Maria Villares-Varela: University of Southatmpton, UK

Urban Studies, 2019, vol. 56, issue 5, 960-976

Abstract: How do migrant entrepreneurs contribute to economic development? The growing attention to the contribution that migrants make tends to be skewed towards their economic role. Drawing on interviews with 49 new migrant business owners and 60 workers in the West Midlands, UK, we argue that benefits of diversity should be explored beyond the economic dividend. We engage with key theoretical developments in the fields of migrant entrepreneurship and diversity economics, and show that migrant entrepreneurs are characterised by the polarisation of their performance between high fliers and survival entrepreneurs. Despite their overall resource poverty, migrant entrepreneurs on the lower level create employment for their locality, cater to community needs and cushion the social incorporation of new communities in British society. We argue that debates around the benefits of diversity should incorporate not only economic growth, but also its impact on social processes.

Keywords: diversity; employment/labour; entrepreneurship; migration; race/ethnicity; å¤šæ ·æ€§; 就业/劳动力; 创业; 移民; ç§ æ— /æ°‘æ— (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098018765382 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:56:y:2019:i:5:p:960-976

DOI: 10.1177/0042098018765382

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Urban Studies from Urban Studies Journal Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().