Shape the Enterprise, Shape the Life: Strategy of Living Life in Refuge as an Ethnic Entrepreneur in Light of Immaterial Labor

Abstract This article aims to present and analyze the strategy for living life of Syrian refugees, examining the ethnic enterprise in light of the notion of immaterial labor. A qualitative and exploratory study was conducted in the city of Porto Alegre (Brazil), based on a corpus of research whose thematic focus was ethnicity in the food-sector enterprises of Syrian refugees. The data were accessed by means of newspaper reports, visits to the enterprises, the consumption of products, narrative interviews, and direct observation with photographic and field diary records. The participants were Syrian refugees interconnected through family ties and a common origin who share two enterprises – an ethnic snack bar and confectionery. The analysis resulted in three axes: (a) routes and obstacles in refuge; (b) immaterial labor in the ethnic enterprise; and (c) being an ethnic entrepreneur as a strategy for living life in refuge. It is highlighted that the metaphorical models of wanderer and player help to illustrate the production of subjectivity outlining the ethnic entrepreneur as a strategy for living life as a refugee operationalized by immaterial labor. These conclusions provide an analytical perspective on the subjectivity for ethnic enterprises by showing that the ethnic entrepreneur in correspondence with the self-entrepreneur in immaterial labor operates in the sense of producing/composing/affirming the strategy for living life in refuge. Thus, by shaping the enterprise, it shapes the life.

摘要 本文旨在呈现并分析叙利亚难民的生存策略，并结合非物质劳动（immaterial labor）概念审视族裔企业。本研究于巴西阿雷格里港（Porto Alegre）开展，属于质性探索性研究，研究语料库的主题聚焦于叙利亚难民食品行业企业中的族裔问题。本研究通过报纸报道、企业实地走访、产品体验、叙事性访谈，以及附带摄影记录与田野日志的直接观察等方式获取数据。研究参与者为通过亲属纽带与共同原籍建立联结的叙利亚难民，他们共同经营两家企业：一家族裔风味小吃店与一家糖果作坊。本次分析形成三大维度：（a）避难历程与阻碍；（b）族裔企业中的非物质劳动；（c）作为难民生存策略的族裔创业者身份。研究指出，流浪者与行动者这两个隐喻模型，有助于阐释主体性的生成过程——该过程将族裔创业者界定为通过非物质劳动落地的难民生存策略。上述结论为族裔企业的主体性研究提供了分析视角：研究表明，与非物质劳动领域的自我创业者相对应的族裔创业者，其行动逻辑在于生成、建构与确证难民的生存策略。因此，塑造企业的过程，亦是塑造个体生命的过程。