Privileged core-state migrant entrepreneurs in Poland: an ethnic economy in reverse?

Abstract

PurposeThe study aims to explore migrant entrepreneurship in a hitherto overlooked demographic, namely, migrants who have moved away from core-states and towards an economically less developed area. In particular, the study aims to critically evaluate to what extent mainstream theories and findings regarding migrants' ethnic division of labour are applicable in such an “upside down” migratory context.Design/methodology/approachThe study qualitatively analyses 41 privileged core-state (UK, USA and Germany, among others) migrant entrepreneurs who have migrated to Wroclaw, Poland, and positions these findings against a second subject group of 24 migrant entrepreneurs from periphery-states (namely, Ukraine and Belarus).FindingsThe study finds that, while the situations of the periphery-state subject group largely lend support to the mainstream literature of migrant entrepreneurship, for those from the core-states subject group it is an altogether different story, whereby these migrants were found to be less likely to employ co-ethnic labour and, instead, were more likely to opt for native, Polish labour.Research limitations/implicationsThe study's findings begin to question the universality of migrant entrepreneurship theories which have been formulated within mainstream (semi-)periphery-to-core dominant-subordinate contexts. This, in turn, carries implications for policymakers outside of core-states who may need to carefully consider if such theories are applicable to their specific contexts.Originality/valueThis study not only helps to address a gap in the literature surrounding migrant entrepreneurship within Poland but also a gap within the wider literature in terms of migrant entrepreneurship outside of core-state contexts.

Pandemic transformations in migrant spaces: Migrant entrepreneurship between super‐digitalization and the new precarity

“…The pandemic established new types of migrant privilege connected with the ability of some individuals to work or run a business online in the ‘host’ country while staying in their country of origin. The Covid‐19 crisis enabled new forms of geographic arbitrage, which refers to migrants, strategies of ‘relocating day‐to‐day expenses to low‐cost locations’ (Girling, 2021 ; Hayes, 2014 , p. 1953). Geographic arbitrage takes advantage of the cross‐country variations in livelihood costs.…”