Up until now, research on the labour market insertion of immigrant workers in Spain has focused on their incorporation as salaried employees, leaving aside the study of their economic activities as business people. However, in the last few years, the business initiatives of immigrants have been growing rapidly in the main cities of Spain, like Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Tarragona and Alacant. It is a phenomenon in full expansion, which is productively and physiognomically transforming our society. From this point of view, this work presents a qualitative study based on in-depth interviews with business people of immigrant origin from different countries who are established in Barcelona and Tarragona. Thus it informs us about the characteristics of these companies, the migratory project and hopes of these entrepreneurs, and the creation and survival strategies of these businesses. Likewise, it aims at answering the question of the extent to which immigrants establish ethnic businesses as an alternative to critical situations, like unemployment, under-employment and the underground economy, or, to the contrary, the degree to which these businesses are the culmination of the ascending work experience of enterprising immigrants who, willing and able to assume risks, pursue upward social mobility.

Carlota Solé holds doctoral degrees in Economics from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and in Sociology from the University of Reading. Currently, she is a Full Professor in Sociology at the UAB. Since 1989, she has been the Director of CEDIME (Centre for Immigration and Ethnic Minority Studies - UAB). She has published books and articles on modernisation, migrations and corporativism. In 1990, she received the National Sociology and Political Science Award of the Spanish Centre for Sociological Research (CIS), and in 1995, she won the Mary Parker Follett Award of the American Political Science Association.

Sònia Parella Rubio holds a doctoral degree in Sociology from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the UAB. Currently she is a member of CEDIME. Her book, Mujer, inmigrante y trabajadora: la triple discriminación [Woman, Immigrant and Worker: The Triple Discrimination] (Anthropos, 2003), is an important reference in the study of feminine migrations in our country. She has published numerous works on migrations and the labour market, as well as on the gender perspective in this field of research.

ISBN: 978-84-87072-50-5

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