Migrant economies as new arenas to rethink policies and territorial development
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Migrant economies as new arenas to rethink policies and territorial development Claudia Lintner
Received: 25 June 2013 / Accepted: 12 September 2013 # The Author(s) 2013. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
Abstract The paper is based on an on-going empirical PhD project (Free University of Bolzano, Italy) and deals with the action framework of migrant economies in the South Tyrol of Italy. Self-organization among migrants is perceived as a bottom-up strategy, which can secure not only the material basis for existence, but can also promote active participation in the community and the capacity to become actors of their own development. As the preliminary findings show, in order to develop more real opportunities or freedom of choice there is a significant need to rethink migrant’s role in society. Moreover, awareness of the positive part that migrants can play in society could contribute to a more reflexive understanding of the phenomenon and lead to recognize migrant economic activities more as an important part of territorial development rather than a personal struggle and as a survival strategy.
contexts can therefore be certainly described as selforganization initiatives undertaken by people in order to change their own economic, social, cultural and/or environmental situation. Underlying this perspective the concept of embeddedness, which expresses the idea of an economy immersed in social relations and non-economic institutions, is crucial. The aim of this paper is to understand the action framework of migrant economies in the European border area of South Tyrol. As a territory with a short immigration history, the phenomenon can be observed in its very first developments. The intent of the paper is to provide insight into the theoretical background as well as insight into the particular situation of the pilot study in South Tyrol. Finally, the paper deals with the research question: how can the individual actions of migrant entrepreneurs be described in relation to the concept of embeddedness?
Keywords Migrant entrepreneurship . Embeddedness . Action framework . Migration policies . Territorial development . Policy development
Theoretical background Embedded economy
Introduction In this paper migrant economies are perceived as local economies. The concept of local economy, as Elsen proposes it [6, p. 6] is primarily concerned with the dynamics of local economic structures and economic activities within a manageable territory. Local economies are strictly intended as groups which arise within a specific area and which develop their own dynamics [6, p. 14]. Migrant entrepreneurship in local C. Lintner (*) Faculty of Education, Free University of Bolzano, Viale Ratisbona 16 - Regensburger, Allee 16, 39042 Bressanone Brixen, Italy e-mail: [email protected]
The concept of embedded economy is based on the understanding that people do not act in a social vacuum, but that their economic action is definitely embedded in social contexts. In the words of the ec
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