Citation: Sommer, E. and Gamper, M. (2017). Transnational entrepreneurial activities: A qualitative network study of self-employed migrants from the former Soviet Union in Germany. Social Networks, This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version.Permanent repository link: http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/17798/ Link to published version: http://dx.
AbstractDuring their careers, migrant entrepreneurs may get involved in different types of transnational entrepreneurial activities and use their social capital to activate transnational business-related ties. Based on content analysis of semi-structured interviews and network maps with self-employed migrants from the former Soviet Union in Germany this study identified four empirically grounded types of migrant transnational entrepreneurial activities and analysed transnational networking strategies for each type. The study demonstrates that different types of social capital are mobilised for different types of transnational business strategies, with intensive transnational entrepreneurial activities requiring larger pre-existing networks in the country of origin of both strong and weak ties, that are gradually extended, while a more limited set of mostly informal weak ties suffice for more sporadic transnational activities in the country of origin. Transnational entrepreneurial activities with other countries or with multiple countries, on the other hand, involved a more formal network of relationships.
In this article we address the challenges and advantages of studying social capital of migrant entrepreneurs, applying a mixed‐method research design involving qualitative semi‐structured interviews and standardized network map data collection. Despite some limitations discussed in the article, the study illustrates that an applied methodological approach has a potential to overcome some of the pitfalls of ‘structural determinism’ by looking both at structural and contextual aspects as well as actors’ active role in accessing and (re)shaping their business‐related networks across different geographic spaces. The article demonstrates that qualitative social network analysis is particularly valuable for emphasizing the role of human agency and temporal changes of social relations both in terms of network composition and network content as well as for exploring the meaning attached to social ties, potential access barriers to certain types of social capital and strategies to overcome these barriers.
This paper examines patterns of financial transfers between adult children and their parents in migrant families from the former Soviet Union in Germany. Data from the survey on Ageing of Soviet Union Migrants (ASUM) 2011 allows to compare the exchange of financial transfers in migrant families with elderly parents living in Germany as opposed to migrant families with elderly parents living in the country of origin. Results indicate a substantial number of transnational child-parent relationships among ethnic German migrants from the former Soviet Union. As to the exchange of resources, while financial transfers typically flow from parents to adult children if migrant's parents live in Germany, this is not the case in transnational child-parent relationships, here financial transfers flow more often from adult children in Germany to the elderly parents abroad. We interpret these different patterns in the direction of giving and receiving financial transfers between adult children and parents in transnational or non-transnational relationships as differences in the welfare systems which guarantee different levels of provision for old age.
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