IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v38y2024i6p1485-1505.html

Diverging Entrepreneurial Paths of Survivalist Truckers: Migrants’ Ongoing Agency in US Trucking

Author

Listed:
  • Görkem DaÄŸdelen

Abstract

This article explores the formation of migrant agency by scrutinizing the decision-making processes of owner-operator truckers. Drawing on qualitative data collected among male migrants from Turkey in the US, the main finding is that migrant truckers, by making various decisions at the turning points of their career, choose one of three trucking segments and decide the number of trucks that they own. To understand the differentiated ways agency is formed, the article utilizes forms-of-capital analysis, which reveals how truckers mobilize combinations of social, economic and cultural forms of capital. The study conceptually contributes to the scholarship on migrant entrepreneurship by developing the concept of ongoing agency that combines the temporal aspects of migrant agency with the forms-of-capital analysis. This concept is used to understand how migrant truckers reconfigure their agency as they move between segments and ownership statutes over time.

Suggested Citation

  • Görkem DaÄŸdelen, 2024. "Diverging Entrepreneurial Paths of Survivalist Truckers: Migrants’ Ongoing Agency in US Trucking," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 38(6), pages 1485-1505, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:38:y:2024:i:6:p:1485-1505
    DOI: 10.1177/09500170241258847
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09500170241258847
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/09500170241258847?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lisa Berntsen & Tesseltje de Lange & Ivana Kalaš & Romy Hanoeman, 2022. "Migrant Entrepreneurship Enablers: From Chance Encounters to Community Development," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 36(2), pages 271-289, April.
    2. Natasha Iskander & Christine Riordan & Nichola Lowe, 2013. "Learning in Place: Immigrants’ Spatial and Temporal Strategies for Occupational Advancement," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 89(1), pages 53-75, January.
    3. Linda Mcdowell & Adina Batnitzky & Sarah Dyer, 2009. "Precarious Work and Economic Migration: Emerging Immigrant Divisions of Labour in Greater London's Service Sector," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(1), pages 3-25, March.
    4. Natasha Iskander & Christine Riordan & Nichola Lowe, 2013. "Learning in Place: Immigrants' Spatial and Temporal Strategies for Occupational Advancement," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 89(1), pages 53-75, January.
    5. Pawan Adhikari & Shovita Dhakal Adhikari & Shoba Arun & Thankom Arun, 2023. "Gurkha Warriors as Entrepreneurs in Britain: A Social Anchoring Lens on Martial Heritage and Migrant Enterprises," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 37(5), pages 1359-1376, October.
    6. Monder Ram & Nicholas Theodorakopoulos & Trevor Jones, 2008. "Forms of capital, mixed embeddedness and Somali enterprise," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 22(3), pages 427-446, September.
    7. Robert C. Kloosterman, 2010. "Matching opportunities with resources: A framework for analysing (migrant) entrepreneurship from a mixed embeddedness perspective," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(1), pages 25-45, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. María Villares-Varela & Monder Ram & Trevor Jones, 2018. "Bricolage as Survival, Growth and Transformation: The Role of Patch-Working in the Social Agency of Migrant Entrepreneurs," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 32(5), pages 942-962, October.
    2. Jan Wiers & Didier Chabaud, 2022. "Bibliometric analysis of immigrant entrepreneurship research 2009–2019," Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, Springer;UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship, vol. 12(1), pages 441-464, December.
    3. Deema Refai & Gerard McElwee, 2023. "Refugee Subentrepreneurship: The Emergence of a Liquid Cage," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 37(4), pages 1032-1051, August.
    4. Trevor Jones & Monder Ram & Maria Villares-Varela, 2019. "Diversity, economic development and new migrant entrepreneurs," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(5), pages 960-976, April.
    5. Ratan J. S. Dheer, 2018. "Entrepreneurship by immigrants: a review of existing literature and directions for future research," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 555-614, September.
    6. Ghazal Zalkat & Henrik Barth & Lubna Rashid, 2024. "Refugee entrepreneurship motivations in Sweden and Germany: a comparative case study," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 63(1), pages 477-499, June.
    7. Colin C. Williams & Adnan S. Efendic, 2020. "Evaluating the Relationship Between Migration and Participation in Undeclared Work: Lessons from Bosnia and Herzegovina," Economic Alternatives, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria, issue 4, pages 592-606, December.
    8. Aki Harima & Fabrice Periac & Tony Murphy & Salomé Picard, 2021. "Entrepreneurial Opportunities of Refugees in Germany, France, and Ireland: Multiple Embeddedness Framework," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 625-663, June.
    9. Ojong, Nathanael & Simba, Amon & Dana, Leo-Paul, 2021. "Female entrepreneurship in Africa: A review, trends, and future research directions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 233-248.
    10. Trevor Jones & Monder Ram & Paul Edwards & Alexander Kiselinchev & Lovemore Muchenje, 2012. "New Migrant Enterprise: Novelty or Historical Continuity?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(14), pages 3159-3176, November.
    11. Pascal Beckers & Robert C. Kloosterman, 2014. "Open to Business? An Exploration of the Impact of the Built Environment and Zoning Plans on Local Businesses in Pre-war and Post-war Residential Neighbourhoods in Dutch Cities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(1), pages 153-169, January.
    12. Schlepphorst, Susanne & Kay, Rosemarie & Nielen, Sebastian, 2019. "The effect of migrants' resource endowments on business performance," Working Papers 03/19, Institut für Mittelstandsforschung (IfM) Bonn.
    13. Stoyanov, Stoyan & Stoyanova, Veselina, 2025. "Mitigating liabilities of foreignness in migrant entrepreneurship: The role of AI in building virtual embeddedness," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    14. Efendic, Nedim & Andersson, Fredrik W. & Wennberg, Karl, 2015. "Growth in first- and second-generation immigrant firms in Sweden," Ratio Working Papers 265, The Ratio Institute.
    15. Pawan Adhikari & Shovita Dhakal Adhikari & Shoba Arun & Thankom Arun, 2023. "Gurkha Warriors as Entrepreneurs in Britain: A Social Anchoring Lens on Martial Heritage and Migrant Enterprises," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 37(5), pages 1359-1376, October.
    16. Naveed Yasin & Khalid Hafeez, 2023. "Three waves of immigrant entrepreneurship: a cross-national comparative study," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 60(3), pages 1281-1306, March.
    17. Nik Theodore, 2020. "Deportations and development: Responding to El Salvador’s new migration crisis," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 35(7), pages 635-654, November.
    18. Chloe Tarrabain & Robyn Thomas, 2024. "The Dynamics of Control of Migrant Agency Workers: Over-Recruitment, ‘The Bitchlist’ and the Enterprising-Self," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 38(1), pages 27-43, February.
    19. Thilde Langevang & Katherine V. Gough & Paul W. K. Yankson & George Owusu & Robert Osei, 2015. "Bounded Entrepreneurial Vitality: The Mixed Embeddedness of Female Entrepreneurship," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 91(4), pages 449-473, October.
    20. Gordon L Clark, 2012. "Pensions or Property?," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 44(5), pages 1185-1199, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:38:y:2024:i:6:p:1485-1505. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.