The rise of Mexican entrepreneurial migration to the United States: A mixed‐embeddedness approach

Abstract

Funding informationThe Puentes Consortium Although many studies have analyzed the behavior of high-skilled migration to the United States, few have focused on the escalating migration of Mexican entrepreneurs, and particularly on the determinants of this kind of high-skilled migration. This article addresses this gap through a qualitative approach conforming to quantitative procedures, based on 20 in-depth interviews applied to Mexican entrepreneurs working and/or living in the United States. Theoretically, a mixed-embeddedness approach guides this research because it allows examining both the individual characteristics of Mexican entrepreneurs, and the influence of the home and host countries' institutional contexts on their business endeavors. Findings revealed Mexico's institutional weaknesses, such as insecurity, corruption, and bureaucracy, are important drivers of migration but so are the perception of a friendly U.S. fiscal system, the search for a better quality of life, and the appeal of a more transparent business environment. K E Y W O R D S entrepreneurial migration, high-skilled migration, institutional voids, Mexico-United States migration, mixed-embeddedness framework, opportunity migrants 2017a, 2017b).

A typology of Mexican highly educated immigrant entrepreneurs in the United States

“…In terms of motivations to migrate to the United States among Mexican entrepreneurs, institutional weakness in Mexico was a factor that cut across all the six identified groups, but their effect on each group was different. However, as suggested in the study by Salamanca and Alcaraz (2019), some entrepreneurs did not migrate from Mexico because of its institutional weakness, but due to their positive perception of the institutional environment in the United States. The findings revealed that motivations to migrate among the groups identified tended to be more positive (pull factors) than negative (push factors) except for runaway and avoider‐preneurs.…”

“…From a necessity‐driven perspective, the study of Chaganti and Greene (2002) defined immigrant entrepreneurs as “individuals who, as recent arrivals in the country, start a business as a means of economic survival” (p. 128). On the other hand, from an opportunity‐driven perspective, the study of Bougheas and Falvey (2018, p. 1174) defined entrepreneurial migration as “the migration of an agent (along with her assets), to act as an entrepreneur in the other country.” The literature on high‐skilled migration has adopted the opportunity‐driven approach to analyzing the determinants of entrepreneurial migration (Osaghae & Cooney, 2020; Salamanca & Alcaraz, 2019; von Bloh, Mandakovic, Apablaza, Amorós, & Sternberg, 2020). This research embraces this perspective since a higher level of education provides entrepreneurs with a broader knowledge base and greater absorptive capacity (Cohen & Levinthal, 1990) allowing them to correctly evaluate and effectively use the information made available through their formal ties, and therefore to solve complex business problems (Yavuz, 2021).…”

Ethnic networks and multinational firms’ location decisions

“…Weak ethnic networks are not only seen within high-skilled immigrant networks; there are weak networks between Mexican entrepreneurs and low-skilled ethnic networks (Salamanca P. and Alcaraz, 2018). In other words, high-skilled Mexican entrepreneurs expanding to the USA do not need support from low-skilled ethnic networks (McKenzie and Rapoport, 2010).…”

“…Perhaps, the ethnic networks of Latin American immigrants in North America and the European Union are more related by social activities than by professional or entrepreneurial activities. For instance, high-skilled Mexican entrepreneurs looking to enter the mainstream market in the USA are not focusing on a co-ethnic community (Salamanca P. and Alcaraz, 2018). As a consequence, these Mexican entrepreneurs will integrate weak ethnic networks (Elo and Hieta, 2017).…”

The Business Ownership Patterns of Undocumented Immigrants in the United States: An Exploratory Study

“…Considering the diversity of contexts in which MCAs start businesses, scholars have incorporated useful theoretical frameworks like intersectionality and mixed embeddedness to characterize the heterogeneity of racial, class, and institutional conditions under which MCA business owners operate (Romero and Valdez 2016; Salamanca and Alcaraz 2019). Nevertheless, studies that address legal status as a dimension of business ownership are in their infancy (Fairlie and Woodruff 2010; Gold 2019; Raijman 2001; Ramirez and Hondagneu-Sotelo 2009).…”