How far does new migrant enterprise represent a departure from traditional ethnic minority entrepreneurship in the UK? This paper draws on a qualitative survey of 165 new migrants in the UK to address this question. New migrants to the UK are emblematic of ‘super-diversity’, which...

This paper addresses two related issues: the effect of the `regulatory shock' of the National Minimum Wage on small firms and the consequent effects on the commonly observed practice of `informality'. It draws on a survey of such firms but primarily uses case study evidence from five firms to...

How can the phenomenon of new migrant enterprise be explained? The arrival of new migrants to the UK in significant numbers is prompting a new wave of business activity. This expression of 'super-diversity' poses challenges for existing modes of theorizing, or so it seems. We venture outside the...

The introduction of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) had potentially significant implications for small firms. Orthodox economic theory predicts adverse consequences, though institutional analysis points to potential efficiency as well as fairness effects. Using longitudinal data on 55 firms,...

How do small low-wage firms continue to survive on the margins of a modern economy? Continuous restructuring provides a set of spaces but what sorts of firm occupy them and how far do these firms exercise active choice? Four research projects, embracing data on 123 firms, have offered empirical...

Intense global competition and the advent of a raft of employment regulations (notably, the national minimum wage, or NMW) have placed the UK garment industry under severe pressure. The prospects for a significant segment of this sector -- ethnic-minority-owned businesses -- appear to be...

Based on detailed case histories of South Asian workers and their co-ethnic employers in the West Midlands clothing and catering industries, this paper examines the use of illegal immigrant labour in small ethnic minority firms and attempts to tease out its implications for the migrants...

There has been a flurry of interest from academics and policy-makers alike in the growing phenomenon of ethnic minority entrepreneurship. Despite theoretical advances, there is a lingering tendency to isolate ethnic minority enterprise from the context in which it operates. This article argues...

Ethnic minority business activity has often been presented as a vehicle for `upward mobility' for owners and workers alike. Much attention has focused upon the owners themselves. The co-ethnic labour that such employers usually rely upon has often been treated as unproblematic. This paper aims...

This paper explores the dynamics of workplace relations in small firms. Case study evidence from three clothing firms in the West Midlands is used to demonstrate that workplace relations in small firms are not necessarily harmonious nor autocratic. Rather, they are complex, informal and often...