colloquium lecture
18:15 pm, IW3 0330 / hybrid
Introduction for students.
Muriel Nägler (FSO)
colloquium lecture
18:15 pm, IW3 0330 / hybrid
Introduction for students.
Muriel Nägler (FSO)
colloquium lecture
18:15 pm, IW3 0330 / hybrid
Introduction for students.
Muriel Nägler (FSO)
colloquium lecture
18:15 pm, IW3 0330 / hybrid
Introduction for students.
Muriel Nägler (FSO)
colloquium lecture
18:15 pm, IW3 0330 / hybrid
Introduction for students.
Muriel Nägler (FSO)
colloquium lecture
18:15 pm, IW3 0330 / hybrid
Introduction for students.
Muriel Nägler (FSO)
Central Asian Migrant Entrepreneurs in Russia:
Transnational Networks and Local Opportunity Structure
PhD project by Ekaterina Vorobeva (since 2020)Supervisors: Heiko Pleines, Michael Rochlitz
The current project belongs to the Innovative Training Network “Mapping Uncertainties, Challenges and Future Opportunities of Emerging Markets: Informal Barriers, Business Environment and Future Trends in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia (MARKETS)” funded by an MSCA grant of the European Union in the context of Horizon 2020.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, all post-socialist states experienced dramatic economic changes. Together with the emergence of local and foreign enterprises in the Russian market, the wealthiest state in the region and one of “the world’s main migration magnets” (Eraliev and Urinboyev, 2020, p. 258*), migrant entrepreneurship has constituted another new economic phenomenon. Despite its large magnitude, crucial importance for sustaining regional business links, and numerous contributions to the local economy, migrant entrepreneurship in Russia remains largely overlooked in both academic and political discussions. This knowledge gap significantly limits our understanding of economic life of the region.
Tadjik, Uzbek, and Kyrgyz nationals constitute the biggest share in the 7-million migrant population of the country, many of whom run companies to accommodate needs of ethnic and mainstream clienteles (Eraliev and Urinboyev, 2020*). Despite numerous business opportunities available in the Russian market, migrant businesspersons may face general as well as specific formal and informal constraints such as discrimination, police pressure, corruption, lack of cultural knowledge and local legal system, insufficient social and economic capital. As suggested by previous studies in other contexts, to effectively deal with existent challenges as well as to secure competitive advantage, migrant entrepreneurs mobilize their transnational networks, cross-border business connections with their home states. These extensive networks proved to play a key role in establishment, survival, and development of migrant-owned businesses. In addition, through transnational activities, migrant entrepreneurs may sustain old and establish new economic connections between post-Soviet states acting as crucial agents in consolidation of regional cooperation.
Therefore, the current research project aims at filling in the existent knowledge gap by investigating entrepreneurial activities of Central Asian migrants in Russia. The study is concerned with effects produced by interaction between migrant entrepreneurship, Russian opportunity structures, and transnational networks. Introducing new qualitative and quantitative data, the research project aims at pouring light on how transnational ties may assist in recognizing and seizing business opportunities as well as renegotiating rules of a local business market. The study is guided by the following research questions: What major formal and informal constraints do Central Asian migrant entrepreneurs face in the Russian business market? How do Central Asian migrant entrepreneurs use their transnational networks to link business opportunities across the borders? What role do transnational business networks play in mitigating challenges of the local business environment? By answering these questions, the research project helps to better understand economic life in the post-Soviet region through a migrant entrepreneurship lens, enrich the migrant entrepreneurship theory with findings of non-Western case studies, and develop the theory of transnationalism by exploring the role of transnational networks in business activities of migrants.
* Eraliev, S. and Urinboyev, R. (2020) Precarious Times for Central Asian Migrants in Russia, in: Current History, 119(819), pp. 258-263.