Cross-border Migrant Entrepreneurship in Switzerland

Across the globe, entrepreneurship is promoted as an opportunity for migrants and refugees to use their various economic potentials and contribute to society. Yet, these debates often portray the phenomenon as static and homogenous, ignoring diverse mobility patterns and the fact that not everyone is in a position to start a successful business.
The presented study examines the lived experiences of migrants from different
backgrounds trying to create a business in Switzerland. Building on the mobility perspective, it explores how entrepreneurship is embedded in individual im/mobility trajectories that go beyond a single movement from an origin to a destination country but include ongoing mobilities between several countries. Methodologically, it is based on 34 biographic interviews, as well as ethnographic observations within an organisation that supports migrant entrepreneurship in Zurich.
The study contributes by showing how the interviewees try to capitalise on their experiences of living in multiple places and how this process is shaped by intersecting social markers, such as socio-economic position, gender/ family situation, and legal status.

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