Els negocis d'origen pakistanès a Barcelona: motivacions per a l'emprenedoria

Immigrant entrepreneurship is an important feature of life in many European cities today.
Barcelona is not an exception: the entrepreneurial initiatives led by migrant communities
are a growing phenomenon reinforced by the context of crisis which becomes a part of
the existing commercial landscape and highlights cultural diversity in the urban space. The
Pakistani community, unlike other immigrant groups settled in Catalonia, stands out for
having a large number of self-employed people who run small businesses. This paper contributes
to a better understanding of the motivations that Pakistanis have to start up a
business, applying the mixed embeddedness theoretical approach on the basis of a specific
case in the Raval neighbourhood of Barcelona. In particular, it analyses how the characteristics
of this group interact with the socio-economic and politico-institutional structures
of the reception-related context. Thanks to a mixed methods design, this study has generated
quantitative data by making a census of all the Pakistani establishments in the Raval (244),
and qualitative data by participant observation and in-depth interviews.