Mixed embeddedness in practice: linking successful integration within community resilience

In her study of immigrant entrepreneurship in Lapland, Yeasmin (2016) emphasizes that a substantial number of businesses created in this region by immigrants are necessity-driven. As the unemployment rate for foreigners is more than double the overall unemployment rate in Lapland, foreigners are forced to become self-employed, looking for any possibilities to sustain themselves and their families. In this sense, most of the immigrants who run business activities are -according to Kloosterman’s model (2010) - trapped in vacancy-chain openings, with very limited chances to develop their business and make it economically sustainable. When investigating the opportunity structure of the region, Yeasmin emphasizes that, in principle, the institutional constraints on opening a business are limited: in fact, it is very easy to start a new firm. Yet, it seems very difficult to keep this enterprise running for a longer period and make it profitable. As most of the immigrant businesses in Lapland are typical ethnic firms whose produce or services are directly linked to immigrants’ culture - that is, ethnic restaurants, ethnic medicine services and so on - the main obstacle to further growth of such businesses is the fact that, “the market of ethnic consumers is small and demand is not sufficient for running a business dependent solely on ethnic consumption” (Yeasmin, 2016: 134).

Therefore, it seems that the main constraint on immigrant entrepreneurs in this case is the absence of an ethnic enclave economy. The ethnic economy is a concept developed by Light and associates (1994) and defined as a subsector of the host country economy dominated by migrant/minority entrepreneurs and the ethnic employment sector. Then, the ethnic enclave is a part of ethnic economy in which there is a substantial number of immigrant firms and employees from the same ethnic group. This specific geographical ethnic concentration brings several benefits for immigrant entrepreneurs: they can take advantage of vertical and horizontal integration. This means that they are linked and can cooperate with co-ethnic suppliers and customers, rely on informal ethnic institutions that provide access to financial capital and know-how, and can employ co-ethnic workers who are more flexible, less demanding and ready to work longer and harder than the indigenous employees. In this case, the entry into self-employment is relatively easy, but only for the individuals who come from a specific ethnic group, and it is closed to competition for outsiders. Although the ethnic enclave economy is regarded as providing a fertile ground for immigrant business creation, at the same time, many authors indicate that it is very difficult for such entrepreneurs to further develop their business and make it sustainable in the long run - that is, providing a stable source of income for the migrant and their family (Zubair &: Brzozowski, 2018).

Yet, in the Arctic case, access to such a specific “entrepreneurial incubator” as the ethnic enclave is not possible owing to the small size of immigrant populations and low ethnic concentration (Yeasmin, 2016). In such a case, it is interesting to return to the examples of immigrant entrepreneurs who managed to succeed without the support of the ethnic enclave. In doing so, we rely on the study by Zubair and Brzozowski (2018), who investigated immigrant entrepreneurs in two European cities: Klagenfurt in Austria and Krakow in Poland. At the time the study was carried out (years 2014-2016), the immigrant populations in both cities were relatively small, and so immigrant entrepreneurs could not rely on ethnic enclave links and informal institutions when conducting their business activities. Most of these businesses were in fact created with the help of family networks and resources, and not thanks to co-ethnic resources. Those immigrants who tried to develop the firm in a “traditional” way, maintaining operations in vacancy-chain openings and trying to stick with co-ethnic customers, partners or suppliers usually failed or were thinking of closing their businesses at the time of the survey (Zubair & Brzozowski, 2018).

Yet, an interesting picture arises when we look at those immigrants who took a more innovative stance and decided to look for business contacts and clients beyond their close, homogeneous co-ethnic network. An obvious choice in Klagenfurt was for a Sikh entrepreneur who was running a grocery store to approach other immigrants from Asia, including Indians, Afghanis, Pakistanis or Thais. Moreover, this grocery shop evolved over time, also offering, apart from food products typical of Asian cuisine, electronics, telecommunication and money transfer brokerage services and even tickets for cultural events, such as the Bollywood movie festival in a local cinema. Sometimes, however, this diversification of business activity was not enough to make the business sustainable, and economic survival depended on overcoming the traditional ethnic barriers and conflict. For instance, a very patriotic Palestinian entrepreneur was able to develop his restaurant by relying on close cooperation with a Jewish hotel owner who marketed the business among his Jewish clientele. Finally, the most promising option was a break-out strategy, reaching to the mainstream, post-industrial, low-skilled market. This was the case of a Pakistani entrepreneur who ran a bar and café. Being successful in this business was not easy and required not only discarding traditional Islam values (as most of the revenue came from selling alcoholic drinks), but also operating during non-traditional opening hours - actually, his business was open exactly during the times when most rival bars were closed (Zubair & Brzozowski, 2018).

The study by Munkejord (2017) is even more relevant, as it deals with the network embeddedness of immigrant entrepreneurs in the context of Finnmark and the Arctic region of Norway. The most novel aspect of this research was that it demonstrates that recently arrived immigrants are able to successfully create and exploit entrepreneurial opportunities. Sometimes, this rapidly achieved embeddedness in local networks is possible thanks to locals’ openness to newcomers, as in the case of the immigrant from Switzerland who started to produce handcrafted glass ornaments with graphic elements inspired by Nordic culture and landscape. The local community was so interested in these novel products that one of the local entrepreneurs quickly offered the manufacturer the possibility of selling the ornaments at a local petrol station. Other members of the local community started to buy the ornaments, feeling a sense of regional pride in the fact that the ornaments are made locally and the designs are inspired by local folk tradition.

Yet, when the cultural distance between the immigrant and the native community is substantial, becoming embedded in local networks takes more time. This was the case for an African refugee who, just a few weeks after arrival, created an association for refugees and a local gospel choir and a band. His music activities served as a way to extend his personal network, both with other immigrants and with the representatives of the indigenous population. He also took advantage of the introductory programme for refugees to learn Norwegian. After acquiring enough cultural and social capital, he was then able to open a small café and a shop that served both immigrants and the local population and became an important venue where newcomers could socialize with local community members (Munkejord, 2017). The first case, the handicraft production of glass ornaments, shows not only the significant innovativeness and flexibility of the immigrant entrepreneur involved, but also the relatively high level of local community resilience and readiness to quickly integrate newcomers. The second case, the refugee entrepreneurship, also shows the local community’s good resilience mechanisms, inclusiveness and the availability of institutions (the local church in which the gospel choir and band played and local authorities that helped to create a refugee association).