Immigrant small business in Sweden: A critical review of the development of a research field

Abstract This paper examines the current state of immigrant small business research (ISBR) in Sweden, discusses the main trends in the field and presents the key texts that represent these trends. It is noted that research in the 1990s was largely influenced by the current political agenda, while academic communication between Swedish and international ISBR on the one hand, and Swedish ISBR and Swedish 'mainstream' small business research (SBR) on the other were conspicuous by their absence. Besides, only a few researchers in the field were able to conduct their research in a systematic manner or with stable and long-term funding of research teams. The situation has changed in the 2000s. This period was characterized by increased academic interest in immigrants' small businesses. Researchers dealing with ISBR wanted to free themselves from the current political agenda as well as from the focus on domestic priorities in terms of research questions and methodology. This has resulted in a large number of published policy-critical texts. At the same time the research interest shifted towards the previously neglected aspects of immigrants' small businesses, such as immigrant women in business, young immigrants and immigrant entrepreneurship in the high-tech sector. These studies were based both on ambitious quantitative survey and on refined qualitative micro-studies. This critical review concludes with the discussion of a possible future research agenda for ISBR

Rekommodifieringen av taxibranschen - förändring av ekonomiska förhållanden och etnisk sammansättning

I denna artikel analyseras de socio-ekonomiska konsekvenserna av den hastigt avreglerade taxibranschen. Det har blivit vanligare för utrikes födda att arbeta i taxibranschen, men de har inte blivit integrerade på samma villkor som de infödda kollegerna. Trots att de utrikes födda är högre utbildade, har de lägre inkomst från taxibranschen än de infödda. Resultaten visar hur en bransch med försämrade arbetsvillkor kan erbjuda relativt attraktiva arbetsmöjligheter för utrikes födda, samtidigt som det resulterar i en oavsiktlig bieffekt, nämligen att utrikes födda påverkas hårdast av de rekommodifierande processerna i relationerna mellan arbetsmarknad och socialpolitik. ENGELSK ABSTRACT: Susanne Urban & Zoran Slavnic: Recommodification of the Taxi Sector: Changing of Economic Relations and Ethnic Composition This article addresses the socio-economic consequences of the rapid deregulation of the Swedish taxi sector. Foreign-born residents have become more involved in the taxi business, but they have not been integrated in the sector under the same conditions as their Swedish-born fellow workers. Although higher educated, they have lower incomes from the taxi sector than their Swedish-born colleagues. Our findings show how a sector with increasingly poorer working conditions appears to be an attractive employment opportunity for foreign-born citizens. However, at the same time, there is an unintended side-effect, in that the foreign born workers are severely affected by the recommodification processes in the relations between labour market and social policy. Key words: Taxi sector, ethnic segmentation, re-commodifi-cation, deregulation, ethnic divison of labor, informal economy

Integration into Vertical Mosaic : Reflections on the History of Integration Policy, IMER Research and Journalism in Sweden since 1960s

 During the 1960s immigrants were normally called -foreigners- (utlänning) in the Swedish press, and were usually described in a way that would nowadays be considered not only as politically incorrect but also as flagrantly racist and xenophobic. This way of representing immigrants in the Swedish media changed radically at the beginning of 1970s. The word -foreigner- was replaced by -immigrant- in most newspaper articles, and the media started to represent immigrants in a manner that resembles current politically correct media discourse. This paper discusses, first, the reasons for this discursive shift, in the context of the evolution of the Swedish integration and integration policy that was initiated at the end of the 1960s, and, second, the related development of international migration and ethnic relations (IMER) research in Sweden. Finally, the paper presents some reflections on the current state of relations between Swedish integration policy and Swedish IMER research.Original Publication:Zoran Slavnic, Integration into Vertical Mosaic: Reflections on the History of Integration Policy, IMER Research and Journalism in Sweden since 1960s, 2008, Migracijske i etnicke teme, (24), 4, 371-388, http://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=clanak&id_clanak_jezik=53381Copyright: Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studieshttp://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=casopis&id_casopis=1

Conflicts and inter-ethnic solidarity [Elektronisk resurs] : Bosnian refugees in Malmö

The Bosnian Diaspora: Integration in Transnational Communities provides an extensive exploration of a major post-conflict European Diaspora, presenting the latest trans-national comparative studies drawn from the US, Australia and countries across Europe, to explore post-crisis interactions among Bosnians and the impact of post-conflict related migration. Examining the common features of the Diaspora this volume addresses the influence of global anti-Muslim rhetoric on the Bosnian Diaspora's self-identification and refugees' relationships to their home country.</p

Immigrant and Small Business Research in Sweden : An Overview

The aim of the paper is to examine the current state of immigrant and small business research (ISBR) in Sweden. The ISBR field is relatively new and undeveloped in Sweden, so mostresearch in this field concerns issues that are crucial in establishing this as a field of study. Apart from a historical overview of immigrant entrepreneurship and definitions of the concept of ethnic or immigrant business, many of the texts concern the distribution of immigrant businesses in Sweden.The second important feature of ISBR in Sweden is that it has allowed itself, deliberately ornot, to be guided by the optimistic vision and expectations in relation to ISB that also inform the official political agenda. It has done this instead of trying to develop its own research agenda based on scientific priorities, and secondarily, on results of international ISBR. Another relevant characteristic of ISBR in Sweden is the fact that only a few scholars have been able to deal with these issues systematically, while the majority have simply written papers during ad hoc forays in to the field of study. The final important feature of ISBR in Sweden is the lack of communication between ISBR and mainstream small business research and other relevant research fields

Breaking out – Barriers against Effort, Biographical Work against Opportunity Structures

This paper presents the life story of a single small-business owner of immigrant background who wants his companyto grow. His business strategies are analysed both as a part of his own biographical work, and as they wereinfluenced and framed by broader political, economic and social processes. It is shown how his own personalqualities in combination with opportunity structures in the local market provided favourable conditions for hisbreak-in. Breaking out, however, seems to be presented with different types of barriers, such as lack of access tocapital, discrimination, and the fact that new markets may consist of different sorts of network that are in its turnmore difficult for new actors to enter. But even if newcomers often find these barriers difficult for to overcome,individuals are not just passive objects but also have the opportunity to realize their lives according to their own lifeplans

Research and data-sharing policy in Sweden - neoliberal courses, forces and discourses

The discourse of openness has proved to be a very powerful instrument for promoting new research policies and the (neoliberal) reforms of higher education in all so-called advanced economies. it has triggered positive democracy-, transparency-, and accountability-related associations when used in the context of politics, fair resource distribution when used in the sphere of public service, and free access to information and knowledge when used in the field of science and higher education. At the same time, international research shows that university autonomy is increasingly being attacked, reduced, and marginalized by the same policies. Power instances outside academia impose new criteria, such as accountability, performance, quality assurance, and good practice. They also impose ideas about what good research is, which scientific method is to be prioritized, and what good data are. The process of the de-professionalization, polarization, and proletarianization of the academic profession is increasingly affecting academia. However, none of this has much in common with the open-access discourse. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how this discussion applies to Sweden. Courses, forces, and discourses of the national research infrastructure development policy in general, and qualitative data preservation policy in particular, are described and deliberated.Funding Agencies|Riksbankens Jubileumsfond; Swedish foundation for humanities and social sciences [F16-1154:1]</p

Preservation and Sharing of Qualitative Data - Academic Debate and Policy Developments

In most advanced economies the digital archiving of quantitative data is as old as digital technology itself but the idea of digital archiving of qualitative data is of quite recent date1. Two interrelated events are relevant in this context. The first is the establishment of the Qualidata Centre in the Department of Sociology at the University of Essex in the UK in 1994. The initial idea was to preserve data from pioneering examples of social research: in particular empirical data from the classical sociological studies of John Goldthorpe, Peter Townsend and Stan Cohen. The second related event happened in1996, when the UK’s largest provider of funds for social and economic research, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) imposed new requirements on its grant-holders, namely to consider the issues of preservation and sharing of empirical data provided by their research projects. According to the agreement of 1996, between the ESRC, Qualidata Centre and the UK Data Archive (UKDA), Qualidata was appointed to provide a specialist archiving service for the UKDA, while at the same time the ESCR started to impose a requirement on all their award-holders to deposit copies of their qualitative data with Qualidata. In other countries the issue of preserving and re-using qualitative data began to attract serious attention in the mid-2000s. This interest was initiated by the OECD’s Declaration on Access to Research Data from Public Funding, 2004 and the OECD’s Principles and Guidelines for Access to Research Data from Public Funding, 2006. According to these documents, the most important advantages of ready access to research data are: improving the transparency of research processes; recognizing the fact that products of publically funded research are public property; avoiding unnecessary duplication of field work and the burden on research participants; and making data available for other researchers. Despite all these arguments the idea about archiving and open access to research data is viewed among some of the actors involved as problematic. While within quantitative research communities, data archiving and re-using are mainly perceived as trouble free, many qualitative researchers are skeptical. Most are generally reluctant to deposit their empirical data for sharing and re-use. This situation has led to an academic debate, primarily among British qualitative researchers so far, which is not surprising bearing in mind that the archiving policy was introduced in the UK approximately a decade earlier than elsewhere. In the first part of this paper I will present and comment on the epistemological/methodological, ethical/legal, ideological/political, and practical/technical aspects of the ongoing British debate about data archiving and re-use. In the second part of the paper, the Swedish case will be briefly described and considered in light of the academic concerns that have been raised by the British debate

Preservation and Sharing of Qualitative Data - Academic Debate and Policy Developments

In most advanced economies the digital archiving of quantitative data is as old as digital technology itself but the idea of digital archiving of qualitative data is of quite recent date1. Two interrelated events are relevant in this context. The first is the establishment of the Qualidata Centre in the Department of Sociology at the University of Essex in the UK in 1994. The initial idea was to preserve data from pioneering examples of social research: in particular empirical data from the classical sociological studies of John Goldthorpe, Peter Townsend and Stan Cohen. The second related event happened in1996, when the UK’s largest provider of funds for social and economic research, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) imposed new requirements on its grant-holders, namely to consider the issues of preservation and sharing of empirical data provided by their research projects. According to the agreement of 1996, between the ESRC, Qualidata Centre and the UK Data Archive (UKDA), Qualidata was appointed to provide a specialist archiving service for the UKDA, while at the same time the ESCR started to impose a requirement on all their award-holders to deposit copies of their qualitative data with Qualidata. In other countries the issue of preserving and re-using qualitative data began to attract serious attention in the mid-2000s. This interest was initiated by the OECD’s Declaration on Access to Research Data from Public Funding, 2004 and the OECD’s Principles and Guidelines for Access to Research Data from Public Funding, 2006. According to these documents, the most important advantages of ready access to research data are: improving the transparency of research processes; recognizing the fact that products of publically funded research are public property; avoiding unnecessary duplication of field work and the burden on research participants; and making data available for other researchers. Despite all these arguments the idea about archiving and open access to research data is viewed among some of the actors involved as problematic. While within quantitative research communities, data archiving and re-using are mainly perceived as trouble free, many qualitative researchers are skeptical. Most are generally reluctant to deposit their empirical data for sharing and re-use. This situation has led to an academic debate, primarily among British qualitative researchers so far, which is not surprising bearing in mind that the archiving policy was introduced in the UK approximately a decade earlier than elsewhere. In the first part of this paper I will present and comment on the epistemological/methodological, ethical/legal, ideological/political, and practical/technical aspects of the ongoing British debate about data archiving and re-use. In the second part of the paper, the Swedish case will be briefly described and considered in light of the academic concerns that have been raised by the British debate