Friday, February 12, 2010

New Migrant Communities: Polish Entrepreneurs in Leicester

In autumn 2006, the BBC highlighted a large increase in the number of Polish immigrants coming to the United Kingdom. This finding is mirrored by anecdotal evidence and personal observation in Leicester and the Midlands; an area that is often associated with immigration. Unlike other ethnic minorities, the demographics of the Polish immigrants, in particular the size, age and gender composition, as well as the skill level and educational background, are subject to much speculation. This inevitably also affects our understanding of the professional activities of those people. Although a variety of shops have been opened by Polish immigrants, indicating their entrepreneurial activities, our understanding of these businesses and with it their potential impact, was underdeveloped, if not to say nonexistent. The proposed study aimed to gain a first insight into Polish businesses and business aspirations in Leicester and the Midlands, thus providing first answers and, perhaps more importantly, a route map able to inform future research.

In 2006, CREME sponsored the research into a qualitative assessment of Polish businesses in Leicester with the objective to examine the skills, aspirations and potential of Polish nationals towards entrepreneurship; investigate their business experiences in Leicester; assess barriers to business development and identify business support needs for those ethnic-owned firms.

To meet the aim and objectives, a two-phase approach was used:
  • Initialising the project was the assessment of the scale of Polish entrepreneurial activity in Leicester and the Midlands. Starting with communal focus points like Polish shops, bars or restaurants, interviews were used to identify and map Polish business in Leicester.
  • In a second phase the team selected a group of 10 Polish companies, representative of the Polish business community in Leicester and the Midlands. Interviews were conducted with the respective proprietors in early 2007.

Dr. Natalia Vershinina and Dr. Michael Meyer devised semi-structured questionnaires based on forms of capital framework (Bourdieu, 1986). This built on the work that was already carried out by Prof. Monder Ram and Dr. Nick Theodorakopoulos on the state of Somali enterprise in Leicester. The interviews were carried out using narrative approaches in the form of the life-story and immigration history with this select group. The interviews were recorded, typed, and analysed with the help of NVivo qualitative software.

Portraying the Polish immigrant society has raised awareness for particular needs of this group, as well as their contribution to Leicester. Filling this picture in with facts, rather than relying on speculation, helped to fence off the real impact these people have on communities in which they operate. Moreover, we can clearly see the ways in which forms of capital are used by different Polish nationals to create different entrepreneurial activities and that these are time bounded and relate to the period of their entry into the UK. This study is limited by the sample size as well as the selection process. This did reflect the lack of information available on Polish immigrant entrepreneurs within this geographically bounded area. Despite this, the findings suggest that ‘super-diversity’ needs to be acknowledged – as ethnic communities are not homogeneous and this needs to be addressed by research and policy. Moreover, the diversity within ethnic communities is a changing phenomena and this affects the means and modes of capital available: the value of capital changes with use, while forms can increase or decay with storage, therefore that what can be used at one point in time may not be available or valuable at another. Conveying the key characteristics of Polish businesses, especially barriers they encounter, to governmental bodies may contribute to an informed integration of these people, as well as help to actively improve the areas business conductivity.


For more information on the research project please contact the corresponding author:
Dr. Natalia Vershinina on nvershinina@dmu.ac.uk


To date the study resulted in an Occasional Paper, two conference papers and a journal paper currently under review:

Vershinina, N., Barrett, R., Meyer, M. “Polish Immigrants in Leicester: Forms of Capital Underpinning Entrepreneurial Activity”, under review in Work, Employment and Society.

Vershinina, N., Barrett, R., Meyer, M. (2009) “Polish Immigrants in Leicester: Forms of Capital Underpinning Entrepreneurial Activity”, Leicester Business School Occasional Paper Series, N86 (August), ISBN: 978-1-85721-401-7 9 [PDF link]

Vershinina, N., Barrett, R., Meyer, M. (2009) “'Researching Immigrant Entrepreneurial Development: An Ethnographic Study of Polish Entrepreneurs in Leicester”, EIASM RENT XXIII - Research in Entrepreneurship and Small Business Conference, Budapest, Hungary (19-20 November 2009)

Vershinina, N. and Meyer, M. ( 2008) “Polish Entrepreneurs and Social Capital” , International Entrepreneurship - promoting excellence in education, research & practice, 31st International Small Business Conference, Belfast, Northern Ireland

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