The Rise and Fall of the Barcelonnettes in Mexico and their Implications for a Theory of Entrepreneurial Diasporas

This paper develops a socioeconomic model to analyze the construction and ulterior collapse of an entrepreneurial diaspora. The mathematical model is motivated by some empirical facts of the Barcelonnettes diaspora, a group of French immigrants who came to Mexico in the 19th century. Moreover, it makes evident that a theoretical framework that interconnects the social and economic arenas is very helpful to improve our understanding of the dynamics of any entrepreneurial diaspora. These migration-chains with a high level of entrepreneurialism depend heavily on their underlying social governance and, consequently, the sustainability of their social norms and values is critical for explaining their survival. In the case of the Barcelonnettes, a logistic map and numerical simulations show that the dynamics of this diaspora was very fragile, since its success bred its own destruction. This conclusion can be applied to other entrepreneurial diasporas with a “communitarian spin offs system”, where ethnic firms promise the recruited personnel the sponsoring of their entrepreneurial adventures.