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Leveraging symbolic capital: the use of blat networks across transnational spaces

Leveraging symbolic capital: the use of blat networks across transnational spaces
Leveraging symbolic capital: the use of blat networks across transnational spaces
In this article, we contribute to debates on how social networks sustain migrants' entrepreneurial activities. By reporting on 31 interviews with Eastern European migrants in the UK, we provide a critical lens on the tendency to assume that migrants have ready‐made social networks in the host country embedded in co‐ethnic communities. We extend this limited perspective by demonstrating how Eastern European migrants working in the UK transform blat social networks, formulated in the cultural and political contours of Soviet society, in their everyday lived experiences. Our findings highlight not only the monetarization of such networks but also the continuing embedded nature of trust existing within these networks, which cut across transnational spaces. We show how forms of social capital based on Russian language use and legacies of a shared Soviet past, are just as important as the role of ‘co‐ethnics’ and ‘co‐migrants’ in facilitating business development. In doing so, we present a more nuanced understanding of the role that symbolic capital plays in migrant entrepreneurial journeys and its multifaceted nature.
1470-2266
119-136
Rodgers, Peter
78e39552-3d65-4b44-b0e1-10043ba3ff5d
Vershinina, Natalia
f94c91ca-03e1-443f-85eb-067bbb0e813c
Williams, Colin
7944411f-5c5b-4ee7-af97-e6cd66d7632c
Theodorakopoulos, Nick
9cdbe096-be7c-41b0-9487-0e39f85856c2
Rodgers, Peter
78e39552-3d65-4b44-b0e1-10043ba3ff5d
Vershinina, Natalia
f94c91ca-03e1-443f-85eb-067bbb0e813c
Williams, Colin
7944411f-5c5b-4ee7-af97-e6cd66d7632c
Theodorakopoulos, Nick
9cdbe096-be7c-41b0-9487-0e39f85856c2

Rodgers, Peter, Vershinina, Natalia, Williams, Colin and Theodorakopoulos, Nick (2019) Leveraging symbolic capital: the use of blat networks across transnational spaces. Global Networks, 19 (1), 119-136. (doi:10.1111/glob.12188).

Record type: Article

Abstract

In this article, we contribute to debates on how social networks sustain migrants' entrepreneurial activities. By reporting on 31 interviews with Eastern European migrants in the UK, we provide a critical lens on the tendency to assume that migrants have ready‐made social networks in the host country embedded in co‐ethnic communities. We extend this limited perspective by demonstrating how Eastern European migrants working in the UK transform blat social networks, formulated in the cultural and political contours of Soviet society, in their everyday lived experiences. Our findings highlight not only the monetarization of such networks but also the continuing embedded nature of trust existing within these networks, which cut across transnational spaces. We show how forms of social capital based on Russian language use and legacies of a shared Soviet past, are just as important as the role of ‘co‐ethnics’ and ‘co‐migrants’ in facilitating business development. In doing so, we present a more nuanced understanding of the role that symbolic capital plays in migrant entrepreneurial journeys and its multifaceted nature.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 16 January 2018
e-pub ahead of print date: 16 January 2018
Published date: January 2019

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 442383
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/442383
ISSN: 1470-2266
PURE UUID: 30c3c909-3afc-426b-9d5c-c09767b65722

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Date deposited: 14 Jul 2020 16:32
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 08:34

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Contributors

Author: Peter Rodgers
Author: Natalia Vershinina
Author: Colin Williams
Author: Nick Theodorakopoulos

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