Cold grass or hot sands? A comparative study of immigrant Punjabi–Pakistani entrepreneurs in London and Dubai

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to compare immigrant community's business start‐up experiences in ethnic enclaves of London (UK) and Dubai (UAE). The primary data were collected through 20 in‐depth semi‐structured interviews (10 from each country) identified through personal contact networks and snowball sampling approaches in each country. The data were collected from November 2020 to March 2021 and analyzed using the template analysis approach. The findings reveal positive and ambitious business start‐up motivations and experiences among a psychologically “transient” migrant community in the UAE, despite starting their business under stricter business start‐up regulations in comparison with the UK sample where adverse motivations for business start‐up were reported with negative business start‐up experiences among a “naturalized” migrant community with comparatively liberal business start‐up regulations. This study contributes to the empirical cross‐national studies in immigrant entrepreneurship and provides impetus to the mixed embeddedness model while also reviving the seminal works of Phizacklea and Ram as a continuation of a stagnant discourse on cross‐national ethnic entrepreneurship.