Migrant Businesses and Post-Soviet Migration
摘要
I outline the third pillar of immigrant agency theoryImmigrant Agency Theory, namely purposefulactionpurposeful actions, an operational element of agency. In doing so I explore entrepreneurial endeavors of the studied group, while examining how migrant businesses often serve specific community needs and are strategically located near immigrantimmigrant populations. I investigate entrepreneurial activity among post-Sovietpost-Soviet immigrants in Germany by focusing on the Mix MarktMix Markt supermarket chain, a prominent example of immigrant-owned retail that has developed into a transnational business across Europe. Through an in-depth case study, I explore the economic, social, and cultural embeddedness of these businesses within Russian-speaking and East European communities. I analyze how first-generation immigrants and naturalized Germans from the former Soviet Unionformer Soviet Union (FSU) have built extensive transnational business networksnetwork, maintaining connections across Europe and Asia through import–export systems. Empirical data revels how educational and employment backgrounds, as well as local labor marketlabor-market disparities, shape entrepreneurial trajectories. By integrating both capital and agency perspectives, the chapter shows how migrant entrepreneurshipentrepreneurship is not only a response to labor marketlabor-market exclusion but also a dynamic expression of collective identity, cultural continuity, and community-based agency. The Mix Markt phenomenon illustrates how social actionactionsocial reinforces economic integrationintegration within a transnational and localized context.