This article examines the main determinants for entrepreneurial activities among return migrants in a regional context within Romania. The analytical framework is based on conceptual tools provided by the intersection of entrepreneurship theory and return migration research. The study aimed to answer a set of research questions regarding migrant individuals’ probability for entrepreneurial careers upon return, and Romania constitutes a fertile European origin country for testing them. Returnees are perceived as one of the main transformational forces within the country, and great expectations are related to their entrepreneurial orientation. We test this general assumption using survey data collected from 840 returnees and several logistic regression models which included variables about employment status before the individuals’ first migration, country of destination, length of stay abroad, return reasons, use of savings, and sociodemographics. Individuals’ characteristics as well as features of the migration experiences were found to be highly relevant for predicting the chances of migrants entering into entrepreneurship upon return.
Challenging a biased view towards self-employed returnees as neoliberal selves, as the normalized approach of the migration–development nexus tends to depict them, this article builds an alternative conceptual framework to unpack the variegated experiences of migrant returnees’ self-employment trajectories in post-socialist Romania. The authors argue that the overemphasis on the benefits of return migration for origin countries through the skewed focus on the migrants’ accrual of human and financial capital and their ostensible entrepreneurial orientation has resulted in disregarding more influential biographical and cultural aspects. Life story interviews with middle-aged participants reveal the complex subjectivities that are co-produced by the habitus formed during communism – as children born and raised within working-class families – neoliberalism’s rise during the post-socialist transition, and migration, which altered the pursuit of their life goals. The article documents three distinct self-employment pathways among the interviewed return migrants, suggesting that the subjectivities of the self-employed are not uniformly confined to neoliberal self-understandings.
The paper analyzes transnational Romanians’ stories about their first trip abroad. The concept of physical mobility is seen in a broader framework for understanding transnational and cosmopolitan behaviours as well as international migration. In order to distinguish between different types of travelling for the first trip abroad the article is constructed keeping in mind the structural changes and constraints regarding physical mobility for Romanian citizens. During the process of transition from a communist country to the status of EU member, Romanian citizens’ stories about travelling abroad for the first time fundamentally changed. Labour migrants, asylum seekers, business travellers, students or tourists left the countries with different expectations and faced different problems at destination. Their attitudes toward origin and destination framed their images about the first trip abroad. Using a qualitative approach and samples of Romanians who live in Denmark, Germany, Italy, Romania, Spain and the United Kingdom, the analysis emphasizes certain differences between different types of travelling for the first time abroad and reconstructs how Romanians started their transnational careers
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