Immigrant Entrepreneurship and Social Exclusion. Insights from Italy

This study seeks to explore the phenomenon of immigrant entrepreneurship in Italy, with the main objective to explain the factors that influence the decision of immigrants to become entrepreneurs in the host country. The core issue driving this effort is the stated research problem: Are, - and if so how and to what extent, - immigrants decisions to become entrepreneurs related to the degree of social and economic integration in the host country? Are their decisions driven by other factors, such as culture, attitudes to entrepreneurship, attitudes to take risks? Immigrant entrepreneurship is a multi-faceted phenomenon and three approaches, - the structural approach, the cultural approach and the Mixed Embeddedness perspective-, have been used as a starting point to examine literature on this topic. The research carried out with the mixed method showed that immigrant entrepreneurship is guided by structural factors of the host country. At the same time it is influenced by the role of families, ethnic ties and personal characteristics. Accordingly attention has been paid to the mixed embeddedness approach, addressing both economic and socio-cultural factors. The research design has been carried out in five steps. It began with the review of the literature on immigrant entrepreneurship, relevant to the purpose of this research, through a Structured Literature Review (SRL), which helped to better focus on the problem, identify gaps and raise research questions. The empirical research was based on an explanatory mixed research method and covered a period of two years, from 2017 until July 2019. It started with the quantitative research phase, by firstly collecting secondary data (Vartanian, 2010) from the official sources: EUROSTAT, ISTAT, Italian National Chamber of Commerce; Pavia Chamber of Commerce, Pesaro-Urbino Chamber of Commerce. The data served to create a dataset of integration indicators (as suggested from CNEL report 2013) and immigrant entrepreneurship in Italy. Data refers to the year 2017. The dataset was created at territorial disaggregate level (i.e. over 20 reggions and 103 provinces). Three main dimensions were considered in order to measure the immigrant integration in the Italian context: territorial attractiveness, social dimension and economic dimension (Golini, et al., 2001; Cellini, and Fideli, 2002; CNEL, 2013). The outcome of interest was the measure of the growth of entrepreneurial activity of Extra EU immigrants in Italy and its relationship with the host country integration factors. Two multivariate regression models were separately estimated by the ordinary least squares (OLS) technique: regional model and provincial model. Subsequently, the empirical research continued with the qualitative one, following the constructive grounded theory (CGT) guidelines. The data gathered from Pavia and Pesaro - Urbino Chambers of Commerce served as a pool for the selection of interviews. It consisted in face-to-face semi structured interviews over two provinces (Pavia and Pesaro -Urbino) of 10 immigrant entrepreneurs (5 for each province), randomly selected. The outcome of interest was to allow people reflect on the phenomena of their immigration experience, immigrant identity, their settlement in Italy, their studies, work experience - previous and after immigration- their decision to become entrepreneurs, their company mission and vision. It ended up with the Constructed Theory of Immigrant Entrepreneurship Development in the Italian context. The empirical research was finalized with the integration point of quantitative and qualitative research phases. The study pointed out, among others, that unemployment condition, the job loose and the impossibility to find another, the occasional and unstable work life, due to social exclusion factors (i.e. the non recognitions of home country degrees, locals prejudices, host country norms and regulations which does not give to all the same rights), are among the reasons that drove immigrant entrepreneurs towards entrepreneurship. The research founds that the prejudices and socio-economic exclusion are continuously faced by immigrants and are not limited to their first years of establishment in the host country. In addition, findings pointed out a weak relationship between the set of immigrant enterprises and institutions, due to the limited resources devoted to integration and social inclusion of immigrants. Therefore, we argue that a well-structured, clear and specific regulatory framework on the integration of immigrants and, in particular, on immigrant entrepreneurship, can positively contributes to create a solid socio-economic environment, both for immigrants and for native-run businesses. Drawing from the state of the art of the immigrant entrepreneurship phenomenon, was pointed out the limited contribution of management and accounting studies in deepening this topic. Considering the development of this phenomenon in the new era of globalization and the growing of recent flows of immigration in all continents, particularly in Europe, we claim for the need to fulfil this gap through further studies. In this regard, this empirical research provide useful insights in pointing out some research path to cultivate in the future. Finally, more accurate official data on immigration and entrepreneurship of immigrants in general, and their integration in particular, would contribute to a better analysis of the phenomenon.