Ricard MORÉN-ALEGRET, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
This paper studies connections between sustainable development, entrepreneurship and lifestyle immigration in municipalities with fewer than 2000 inhabitants in Girona Pyrenees (Spain). Specifically, the paper analyses the economic incorporation of immigrant entrepreneurs by considering (i) the ways immigrant entrepreneurs contribute to the sustainability of local economies and the social fabric of rural villages, and (b) to what extent immigrant businesses follow purely economic benefit logics (or rather they are set up by lifestyle immigrants in search of a better quality of life). The paper is based on fieldwork carried out in the Girona Pyrenees, and it mainly analyses 10 semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs and self-employed workers living in the area for at least one year, complementing with information from other key informants of the region.
The immigrant entrepreneurs and self-employed workers usually fit themselves in distinctive niches in local labour markets, e.g. cultural-oriented services. Their success partially relies in the variety of capital they possess, including human capital and their capacities for creating local, regional and transnational social networks (e.g. Eimermann & Kordel, 2018). According to most lifestyle immigration literature, for certain groups, immigration is not only triggered by professional success, but also represents the search for self-realization and a higher quality of life (e.g. Benson & O'Reilly, 2016). The paper also explores how immigrants re-imagine and rethink local culture and nature as possible successful business-oriented products, while also recognizing opportunities for sustainable economic diversification. This paper is based upon the SURDIM project, see: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101023968
Mots clés : immigrant entrepreneurship|lifestyle migration|rural development|Pyrenees|Spain
A102511CM