<p>Entrepreneurship is an important part of every country‟s economy. With the recent flow of migration to many countries, immigrant entrepreneurs have received interest from both societal and economical scholars to measure the effect they create on the home country economically or demographically. In Sweden as well as in other European countries, the rate of migration increases significantly. Upon migrating to Sweden, immigrants enters the labor market but difficulties in integrating into the labor market drive immigrants toward self-employment and thus becoming immigrant entrepreneurs.A nationality which has a long history of migration to Sweden and account for a considerable proportion of immigrants coming to Sweden every year are the Thai, but there is little research on this group of immigrants. The purpose of the study is to find out how Thai entrepreneurs use social capital in starting their business venture in Sweden. In the theoretical chapter, entrepreneurship and immigrant entrepreneurs are first defined, then the relationship between networking and entrepreneurship is discussed, followed by a section on social capital and its relationship with immigrant entrepreneurs. The literature suggests that entrepreneurs usually go through 3 stages of venture creation: idea generation, resource acquisition and market organization. With the help of social capital through their social network, entrepreneurs retrieve benefit from their network members in several aspects throughout these stages.We conducted a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with seven Thai entrepreneurs in Sweden who work in food, health-care, retail and lodging businesses. Both the business network and the ethnic network, in this case Thai network, have important roles when Thai entrepreneurs develop new business ventures. Social capital assists the entrepreneurs in solving the difficulties faced during establishment process, such as labor, taxation and legitimacy. In addition, social capital enables the entrepreneurs in information and resource acquisition, word of mouth advertisement and business registration. Further, family members and spouses are found to be significantly important for Thai entrepreneurs in Sweden as a source of labor, capital and business partners.</p> / Master thesis 15p spring term 2010

Entrepreneurship is an important part of every country‟s economy. With the recent flow of migration to many countries, immigrant entrepreneurs have received interest from both societal and economical scholars to measure the effect they create on the home country economically or demographically. In Sweden as well as in other European countries, the rate of migration increases significantly. Upon migrating to Sweden, immigrants enters the labor market but difficulties in integrating into the labor market drive immigrants toward self-employment and thus becoming immigrant entrepreneurs.A nationality which has a long history of migration to Sweden and account for a considerable proportion of immigrants coming to Sweden every year are the Thai, but there is little research on this group of immigrants. The purpose of the study is to find out how Thai entrepreneurs use social capital in starting their business venture in Sweden. In the theoretical chapter, entrepreneurship and immigrant entrepreneurs are first defined, then the relationship between networking and entrepreneurship is discussed, followed by a section on social capital and its relationship with immigrant entrepreneurs. The literature suggests that entrepreneurs usually go through 3 stages of venture creation: idea generation, resource acquisition and market organization. With the help of social capital through their social network, entrepreneurs retrieve benefit from their network members in several aspects throughout these stages.We conducted a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with seven Thai entrepreneurs in Sweden who work in food, health-care, retail and lodging businesses. Both the business network and the ethnic network, in this case Thai network, have important roles when Thai entrepreneurs develop new business ventures. Social capital assists the entrepreneurs in solving the difficulties faced during establishment process, such as labor, taxation and legitimacy. In addition, social capital enables the entrepreneurs in information and resource acquisition, word of mouth advertisement and business registration. Further, family members and spouses are found to be significantly important for Thai entrepreneurs in Sweden as a source of labor, capital and business partners. / Master thesis 15p spring term 2010

Background &amp; Problem discussion: Recently, there has been an increased interest in topics such as immigrant entrepreneurship. Considering that most of the research until now is done in America with American examples, it would be beneficial if such results are verified or refuted in other countries as well, such as Sweden (Brundin, Bögenhold and Sundin, 2001). Overall, businesses ran by immigrant entrepreneurs are creating job opportunities and encouraging Europe’s economy, even though exposed to limited immigration policies and unpleasant public opinion (Halkias et al., 2007). Immigrant entrepreneurs are not a new phenomenon in Sweden and according to Hammarstedt (2004) immigrant self-employment compared to native small-businesses has increased throughout the years, and therefore an important role in the integration of immigrants was made possible by the self-employment sector as a source of employment. Rather than that, most of the research done in this topic by many researchers has been focused in factors triggering immigrant entrepreneurs to start a business, but less researchers were focused in understanding the challenges they face and strategies they adopt in order to survive. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to identify challenges that immigrant entrepreneurs face while starting and running their businesses and analyze how they are interrelated and how do immigrant entrepreneurs cope with them in the setting of a medium-sized town in Sweden. Jönköping as a medium sized town in Sweden is our context. Theoretical framework: The literature used in this study covers studies conducted in different context such as: American, European and Swedish. The conducted studies involve case studies in different context done with immigrant entrepreneurs are mainly about the challenges they face and the strategies they adopt as solutions to those challenges. Such theory helped us identify common challenges among immigrant entrepreneurs. Nevertheless, considering that the existing literature does not explicitly discuss the role of the context (metropolitan, large city, medium-sized town, small (rural town), local community etc), we have to inquire especially into that and use our own data to build a supplementary theory. Method: The method used in this study is a qualitative approach but also with some minor elements of a quantitative approach (the use of the questionnaire during the interviews asked from the respondents to rank the challenges and therefore helped to find out the most significant challenge among them). Considering that generally our study followed a qualitative approach, we have conducted ‘face-to-face’ interviews. There were eight semi-structured interviews. All of the interviews were tape recorded. Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that challenges faced by our respondents were: start-up finance, finance for growth, access to markets, lack of language skills, lack of marketing/sales skills, lack of management skills, access to technology, lack of education, lack of visitors to Jönköping, maintaining customers, Swede’s negative views on immigrant businesses, awareness of food among customers, and competition. However, the four most significant challenges among them were: access to markets, start-up finance, lack of language skills and finance for growth. Besides that the findings show that the strategies that are adopted by immigrant entrepreneurs that we interviewed include the following: use of personal savings, use of personal networks, bank loan, enter low market barriers, scanning the market beforehand, asking help from their customers about language barriers or taking a language course before starting, among others. The findings showed that the context is important to a great extent but besides context, in order for the immigrant venture to occur it matters to a great extent, who the individual entrepreneur is and what business idea he/she develops. In addition, they are key factors contributing not only to the immigrant venture occurrence, but also to the success of the business.

<p><strong>Background & Problem discussion: </strong>Recently, there has been an increased interest in topics such as immigrant entrepreneurship. Considering that most of the research until now is done in America with American examples, it would be beneficial if such results are verified or refuted in other countries as well, such as Sweden (Brundin, Bögenhold and Sundin, 2001). Overall, businesses ran by immigrant entrepreneurs are creating job opportunities and encouraging Europe’s economy, even though exposed to limited immigration policies and unpleasant public opinion (Halkias et al., 2007). Immigrant entrepreneurs are not a new phenomenon in Sweden and according to Hammarstedt (2004) immigrant self-employment compared to native small-businesses has increased throughout the years, and therefore an important role in the integration of immigrants was made possible by the self-employment sector as a source of employment.</p><p>Rather than that, most of the research done in this topic by many researchers has been focused in factors triggering immigrant entrepreneurs to start a business, but less researchers were focused in understanding the challenges they face and strategies they adopt in order to survive.</p><p><strong>Purpose: </strong>The purpose of this thesis is to <em>identify</em> challenges that immigrant entrepreneurs face while starting and running their businesses and <em>analyze</em> how they are interrelated and how do immigrant entrepreneurs <em>cope</em> with them in the setting of a medium-sized town in Sweden. Jönköping as a medium sized town in Sweden is our context.</p><p><strong>Theoretical framework: </strong>The literature used in this study covers studies conducted in different context such as: American, European and Swedish. The conducted studies involve case studies in different context done with immigrant entrepreneurs are mainly about the challenges they face and the strategies they adopt as solutions to those challenges. Such theory helped us identify common challenges among immigrant entrepreneurs. Nevertheless, considering that the existing literature does not explicitly discuss the role of the context (metropolitan, large city, medium-sized town, small (rural town), local community etc), we have to inquire especially into that and use our own data to build a supplementary theory.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>The method used in this study is a qualitative approach but also with some minor elements of a quantitative approach (the use of the questionnaire during the interviews asked from the respondents to rank the challenges and therefore helped to find out the most significant challenge among them). Considering that generally our study followed a qualitative approach, we have conducted ‘face-to-face’ interviews. There were eight semi-structured interviews. All of the interviews were tape recorded.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The findings of this study showed that challenges faced by our respondents were: start-up finance, finance for growth, access to markets, lack of language skills, lack of marketing/sales skills, lack of management skills, access to technology, lack of education, lack of visitors to Jönköping, maintaining customers, Swede’s negative views on immigrant businesses, awareness of food among customers, and competition. However, the four most significant challenges among them were: access to markets, start-up finance, lack of language skills and finance for growth.</p><p>Besides that the findings show that the strategies that are adopted by immigrant entrepreneurs that we interviewed include the following: use of personal savings, use of personal networks, bank loan, enter low market barriers, scanning the market beforehand, asking help from their customers about language barriers or taking a language course before starting, among others.</p><p>The findings showed that the context is important to a great extent but besides context, in order for the immigrant venture to occur it matters to a great extent, who the individual entrepreneur is and what business idea he/she develops. In addition, they are key factors contributing not only to the immigrant venture occurrence, but also to the success of the business.</p>

Sowohl Ägypter als auch Ashkali sind heute in der Verfassung der Republik Kosovo festgeschriebene communities mit Minderheitenrechten. Ihre Angehörige sind mehrheitlich muslimisch. Ashkali und Ägypter sind albanischsprachig während Roma meist einen der drei im Kosovo vorkommenden Dialekte des Romanes sprechen. In dieser Arbeit wurde untersucht, wie und vor welchem Hintergrund neue ethnische Identifizierungen in Konfliktgesellschaften entstehen, welche historischen und politischen Rahmenbedingungen dafür gegeben sein müssen, damit sie sich erfolgreich etablieren und was der jeweilige Vorteil für eine Identifizierung mit der einen oder der anderen Gruppe ist. Historisch-kritisch untersucht wurden schriftliche Ego-Dokumente von Ägyptern und Ashkali (Webseiten, Offene Briefe, Artikel und Monographien) sowie problemzentrierte Interviews, Statistiken, Menschenrechtsberichten und Artikel aus serbischen und kosovarischen Zeitungen. Der Zusammenhang von Antiziganismus und dem Wunsch nach Schaffung einer neuen nationalen Kategorie wurde dabei in der historischen Perspektive deutlich: in den 1960er/70er Jahren grenzten sich jugoslawische Roma von den negativen Stereotypen und ihrer Bezeichnung als „Zigeuner“ ab, promoteten die Bezeichnung ''Roma'' und vernetzten sich mit Roma anderer europäischer Ländern. Ab Ende der 1980er Jahre versuchten in Südwest-Mazedonien einige Menschen sich zu organisieren und ihr Image als „Zigeuner“ zu verlieren, ohne gleichzeitig den Albanern zugerechnet zu werden, die sich von Jugoslawien separieren wollten. Sie organisierten sich über die Republik Mazedonien und auch Jugoslawien hinaus und schafften es, in Serbien und Mazedonien als positive Alternative zur albanischen Minderheit anerkannt zu werden und ihre eigene Kategorie in der Volkszählung zu erhalten. Die Ashkali entstanden 1999 als Ausweg aus der Nachkriegs-Gewalt im Kosovo. / Both Egyptians and Ashkali are formally defined as communities with minority rights in the current constitution of the Republic of Kosovo. Their members are overwhelmingly Muslim. Ashkali and Egyptians are Albanian-speaking whereas Roma tend to speak one of the three Romany dialects spoken in Kosovo. This work examined how new ethnic identifications originate in societies in conflict and the causes behind this development; the historical and political conditions that must be in place to enable these new identities to become successfully established and what the respective benefits are behind identifying with one group over another. Written autobiographical documents from Egyptians and Ashkali (web sites, open letters, articles and monographs) as well as problem-centred interviews, statistics, human rights reports and articles from Serbian and Kosovan newspapers were critically examined from a historical standpoint. The relationship between antiziganism and the desire to establish a new national ethnic grouping is evident when viewed from a historical perspective: in the 1960s and 70s the Yugoslav Roma distanced themselves from the negative stereotypes associated with the name “Zigeuner” (gypsy), promoted the name Roma and built links with Roma from other European countries. At the end of the 1980s groups in south-west Macedonia joined together to shed their “Zigeuner” (gypsy) image, creating a group distinct from the Albanians who in turn were trying to separate themselves from Yugoslavia. The groups became more organised, extending beyond the Republic of Macedonia and Yugoslavia and they succeeded in being recognised as a positive alternative to the Albanian minority in Serbia and Macedonia where they were included in the census as a separate ethnic category. The Ashkali identity was created in 1999 in response to the post-war violence in Kosovo.