Diaspora Governance and Transnational Entrepreneurship

"The volume offers valuable insights about entrepreneurs operating across national boundaries, bridging origins and destinations, spanning their diasporas. As these entrepreneurs find opportunities in their countries of origin as well as with their co-ethnics located in or connected to the place of destination, a new picture emerges of their opportunities and constraints, and the implications for national development. These entrepreneurs build new governance structures and rework their relationships to the states from which they came. An insightful volume for scholars of economic sociology, entrepreneurship, and transnational migration."

• Frederick F. Wherry, Townsend Martin, Class of 1917 Professor of Sociology at Princeton University, and the Founding Director of the Dignity and Debt Network

"Transnational entrepreneurs are a special kind of immigrant. Unlike most immigrants, and even unlike most immigrant entrepreneurs, transnational entrepreneurs link sending and reception countries through international business, including the business of labor recruitment. Doing so, they expand and enhance the international linkages that created the immigration in the first place. Transnational entrepreneurship is an engine of change. Any sophisticated understanding of immigration needs to understand how that engine works. The daily practice of transnational entrepreneurs links business, ethnicity, class, and culture, and research on transnational immigrants needs to be multi-disciplinary to do justice to the practice. This volume significantly and consciously advances that crucial inter-disciplinary agenda."

• Ivan Light, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, UCLA

"The potent forces of migration, entrepreneurship and high politics combine in this compelling account on the varied and creative ways in which migrants ply their trade across borders. In this skilfully curated collection, a stellar cast of distinguished scholars offer new insights on the changing nature of ‘Transnational Entrepreneurship’. Befitting an analysis on globalisation, the contributions cover considerable territory, ranging from the lived experience of migrants engaged in cross-border trade, to the playing out of diaspora politics and governance challenges in several entrepreneurial domains. A much needed contribution."

• Monder Ram OBE, Director, Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship, Aston Business School, Aston University

"In a world that has seen a reaction against globalisation, the phenomenon of transnational entrepreneurship reminds us that the mixing of cultures can generate new value rather than conflict. Transnational entrepreneurs generate value across migration corridors which too often are seen as one-way streets of human misery. This book delves into the nature and consequences of transnational entrepreneurship, demonstrates the importance of multiple contexts, and sets out an agenda for research on a subject that is likely to become more, not less, important in the future. It is a valuable addition to a fast-growing literature."

• Jonathan Levie, Professor of Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, J.E. Cairnes School of Business & Economics, National University of Ireland Galway

"Representing years of research from around the world, Zapata-Barrero and Rezaei combine forces to create this collection of articles that advances our knowledge of the interacting causes and consequences of transnational entrepreneurship and how states manage and react to it. Diaspora Governance and Transnational Entrepreneurship is a trail-blazing volume and it is truly comparative and international, spanning origins and destinations across the entire world."

• Edward Telles, Distinguished Professor, University of California, Irvine

"This book addresses an important topic on migration and transnational diaspora in the age of great uncertainty. It provides insightful observations from a wide range of theoretical perspectives. Another highlight is that leading scholars examine this global phenomenon covering different geographical regions with important policy implications. I highly recommend this book to students of international migration, entrepreneurship, public policy and transnational studies."

• Yipeng Liu, Professor in Management and Organisation Studies, Director, Centre for China Management and Global Business, Henley Business School, University of Reading, UK

"In this collection of path-breaking reflections on transnational entrepreneurship, Ricard Zapata-Barrero, Shahamak Rezaei and their colleagues have provided a brilliant analysis of a truly global social pattern. They convincingly employ insights from the studies on diaspora, cross-border identities, business entrepreneurship and transnational practices. The contributions to this volume draw a differentiated portrait of complex cross-border engagements. There are insights to be gained for public policies of immigrant and emigrant states alike. This book is highly relevant for the reorientation of research in the fields of migration and entrepreneurship."

• Thomas Faist, Professor Sociology of Transnationalization, Development and Migration Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University

"The editors (Ricard Zapata and Shahamak Rezaei) have demonstrated their capacity to fill the gap of the lack of work on transnational entrepreneurship among migrants areas. It is an innovative idea, because the economic involvement of migrants as entrepreneurs through borders and citizenships is rarely highlighted. Many of them have been for a long time salaried workers in industry or agriculture and so associated with working class images. But, thanks to the diversification of migrations, transnational entrepreneurship is an emerging topic, studied here following a multifaceted approach."

• Catherine Wihtol de Wenden, Directrice de recherche CNRS, Senior research fellow, CNRS, Sciences-Po Centre de Recherches internationales; Paris

"This highly original and innovative edited collection brings fresh insights into the important global socio-economic phenomenon of transnational entrepreneurship. Appealing to scholars, researchers and policy-makers across many fields - migration, diasporas, transnationalism, business studies and international relations - the chapters range over diverse, multi-sited global contexts, and stress the heterogeneity of transnational entrepreneurs. As a growing global phenomenon, transnational businesses created by migrants, as immigrants and returnees, have considerable developmental potential but also pose challenges to governance and regulation."

• Russell King, Professor of Geography, University of Sussex, Sussex Centre for Migration Research, School of Global Studies

"The editors, Ricard Zapata-Barrero and Shahamak Rezaei, make a strong case for further developing a multidisciplinary research agenda on transnational migrant entrepreneurship. Studies on transnational economic activities have been thin on the ground, but this fascinating volume aims to fill that gap and, in so doing, draw particular attention to wider migratory dynamics and diaspora politics. This book is necessary context for any scholar working in migration and business studies."

• Jan Rath, Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Amsterdam

"This volume provides a welcome addition to the literature on ethnic entrepreneurship by analyzing its iterations and impacts across borders. Particularly useful is its focus on the cultural, political, and social dimensions of transnational entrepreneurial projects and on the role of states in encouraging them as an integral part of efforts to reinforce membership without residence and promote economic development. An important contribution to migration and mobility studies."

• Peggy Levitt Chair, Department of Sociology, Wellesley College, B.A., Brandeis University; M.S., Columbia University USA
<