Migrant Entrepreneurship Enablers: From Chance Encounters to Community Development

Lisa Berntsen, Tesseltje de Lange, Ivana Kalaš and Romy Hanoeman
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Lisa Berntsen: De Burcht (Scientific Research Institute for the Dutch Labour Movement), the Netherlands
Tesseltje de Lange: Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands
Ivana Kalaš: Independent Researcher, the Netherlands
Romy Hanoeman: University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Work, Employment & Society, 2022, vol. 36, issue 2, 271-289

Abstract: This article explores the underexamined role of personal enablers in migrant entrepreneurship. Drawing on timeline interviews, the study relays the importance of entrepreneur enablers in migrants’ business endeavours over time, ranging from coincidental and ephemeral encounters to the development of supportive communities. In the absence of accessible business support structures, the role of chance in migrants’ entrepreneurial trajectories increases, leading migrants to become self-employed, often against the grain of their own expectations or those of their inner circle of contacts or the wider society. The timeline interviews are a helpful method to capture how particular people, in conjunction with broader societal and smaller personal developments, influence entrepreneurial choices and progression over time. The study adds a dynamic and agentic perspective to migrant entrepreneurship literature underlining the importance of personal enablers to support migrant entrepreneurial developments over time.

Keywords: chance encounters; community of support; entrepreneur enablers; migrant entrepreneurship; timeline interviews (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:36:y:2022:i:2:p:271-289

DOI: 10.1177/09500170211031441

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