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Informal migrant workers and street vendors have long been recognized as vulnerable groups in urban areas of Global South countries. However, limited studies exist on the economic challenges faced by migrant street vendors during crises. We aim to address this gap by shedding light on their livelihood and welfare losses during a public health crisis.

This research uses descriptive and qualitative analyzes to triangulate the results. Data are derived from surveys and in-depth interviews with migrant street vendors in the two biggest cities in Vietnam during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The street vendors experienced significant business loss and consumption reduction during social distancing as well as encountered difficulties in recovering their businesses in the “new normal.” These adverse consequences were also found to disproportionately affect women vendors. Additionally, despite adopting various strategies and mitigation mechanisms to sustain their businesses and consumption, these efforts proved insufficient.

This research underscores the importance of short-term and long-term urban policies aimed at supporting and promoting the social inclusion of street vendors, particularly migrant and women vendors.

This research represents one of the early attempts to explore the adverse effects of a public health crisis on migrant street vendors and to examine whether the crisis disproportionately affected vendors from different genders and educational backgrounds. It also examines their business recovery in the “new normal.”

The purpose of the study is to investigate the stressors faced by migrant entrepreneur-managers of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as their resilience strategies for reviving their businesses.

This study employs a qualitative research design based on grounded theory. Semi-structured interview questionnaire was used for one-to-one interviews with 20 migrant entrepreneur-managers, representing ten different business sectors during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 and 2021. Interviews were transcribed, coded into open code, axial code and selective code to identify the major themes, and analysis was done into three levels to explore the stressors and initial strategies implemented to cope with the crisis. Trustworthiness of the findings was ensured by credibility, transferability, dependability and conformability, and reflexivity.

This study explored three types of stressors: finance-related stressors, supplies-related stressors and human resources-related stressors in migrant SME entrepreneur-managers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study revealed the use of comprehensive supply chain strategies followed by migrant SME entrepreneur-managers to be resilient enough to cope with a crisis situation like the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study covers an under-researched area of research related to stressors and resilience strategies in migrant SME entrepreneur-managers during the pandemic situation. A large body of prior research contributes to employees' stress and coping behaviors, while this paper focuses on stressors in migrant entrepreneur-managers in the special context of pandemics and their strategies to be resilient during a crisis situation. Thus, the findings of this study contribute to SME entrepreneur-managers, policy makers and academicians so that a large number of migrant entrepreneurs can develop resilient strategies for crisis situations. Furthermore, this study contributes to the supply chain resilience literature and resource dependency theory.

This theoretical paper introduces a conceptual framework for Personal Cultural Heritage Management (PCHM), derived from prior research on migrants' information practices. It elaborates on the literature background and the development of the PCHM framework, highlighting the role of personal information management (PIM) and personal collections in the creation, access and utilization of cultural heritage information.

The study describes and explains the construction of the PCHM framework as a structured and self-motivated approach to personal heritage and identity learning.

Following the theoretical background and assumptions, along with the presentation of the key building blocks, the paper describes the key components of the framework, outlines their definitions and provides examples.

Theoretically, PCHM extends the current literature by encapsulating processes and actions employed by individuals to manage personal collections for cultural identity purposes, thereby underscoring the critical role personal collections play in both preserving and communicating cultural heritage.

PCHM can guide the development of support systems and policies to enhance cultural continuity and integration, thus empowering individuals to navigate their cultural identities confidently.

The PCHM framework creates a unique intersection between PIM and cultural heritage, providing a new perspective for understanding the dynamic evolution and formation of cultural identity among migrants.

A growing body of evidence suggests that experiences of discrimination may affect physical and mental health through multiple pathways. This paper aims to characterize the extent of everyday perceived discrimination among Brazilian and Cape Verdean immigrant adults in Portugal, to identify its forms and analyze its association with mental health.

This study draws on data from the EQUALS4COVID19 (Equity in health in times of pandemic) project that implemented a cross-sectional survey combining online and face-to-face questionnaires for data collection between February and November 2022.

Women were less likely than men to report no discrimination experiences and more likely to report combined bases of discrimination. While Brazilian women were more likely than Cape Verdean counterparts to report gender and nationality-based discrimination, Cape Verdean women and men were more likely to report experiencing race-based discrimination. Gender (being identified as a woman) and length of stay in Portugal were the main predictors of depression, while resilience and perceived social support were protective factors. Participants with higher levels of resilience showed a significantly diminished association between perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms.

This study highlights the need for further research on the interlocking influences of gender, race, nationality and other structures of power, on health and illness to increase our understanding of what would help meet the specific needs of migrants’ mental health and improve equitable health care.

The findings on the multiple and intersectional discrimination perceived by the Brazilian and Cape Verdean populations in Portugal illustrated the ways mental health can be affected by social structures, such as gender and ethnic hierarchies, and can be used to inform the relevance to design and implement programs on combating individual and institutional discrimination and improving the rights of all people.

As populations are ageing and the global average life expectancy is rising, the provision of care for older people is an increasingly salient issue. This paper aims to focus on family-provided care for older immigrants, examining how older immigrants and care providers experience and construct family caregiving.

Based on interviews with care recipients, family care providers, municipal staff and representatives for migrant organisations in Sweden, this study presents a typology of family caregiving for older immigrants.

The authors found three caregiving types, namely, solely family-provided care and a combination of family care and public care (predominantly one or the other). The decision to select family-provided or publicly-funded care depends on personal and institutional factors.

The paper makes three empirical contributions to the literature on care provision for older immigrants. Firstly, this study provides insights into the structural and personal factors that shape care-giving arrangements for older immigrants. Secondly, this study examines the perspectives of care recipients and care providers on family-provided care. Care expectations differ between both groups and sometimes result in intergenerational disagreement. Thirdly, in terms of institutional support, this study finds that the Swedish state’s notion of individual needs does not match the needs of immigrant elderly and their caregivers. The paper places the care types in a broader discussion about eldercare provision in the Swedish welfare state, which has experienced a decline in publicly funded care services and an increase in family caregiving in the past 30 years. In addition, it addresses questions of dignified ageing from a minority perspective.

Surveys in Europe show that immigration is more of a challenge than an opportunity for a significant number of people. However, little attention is given to attitudes toward immigration in the Middle East. This paper examines the effects of personal values and religiosity on the anti-immigration attitudes of citizens in the Middle East and North African countries.

Utilizing data from the World Values Survey, we analyze how personal values and religiosity affect anti-immigration attitudes in nine Middle Eastern countries. The data covers individual-level data of 9 MENA countries from the WVS Round 7 (2017–2022). Factor analysis is applied as a data reduction method. Afterward, an OLS regression analysis is conducted on the pooled data.

Anti-immigration attitudes increase with age, education, and religiosity. Personal values such as national pride, support for nationals, and belongingness to one’s country significantly affect anti-immigration attitudes. Furthermore, the importance of religion as a measure of religiosity was found to be positively associated with anti-immigration attitudes.

This paper contributes to underexplored literature by investigating how individual-level determinants, such as demographic indicators, personal values, and religious factors, shape anti-immigration attitudes in the MENA context, distinct from European dynamics.

This article explores in a qualitative manner the motivations of women entrepreneurs who start and run ethnic food businesses in London.

Our approach is qualitative and deploys phenomenographical analysis of interview narratives around categories of motivation.

We find that women ethnic food entrepreneurs are driven by a combination of desire for self-actualisation, identity-maintenance and community considerations. We demonstrate that women ethnic food entrepreneurs often go against the logic of the market, and they do so not because they lack other options, but for reasons that have to do with their (self-)identification as women and professionals, their prerogatives as mothers and daughters, their ethnic heritage, their emplacement in urban and global communities and their need to contribute. Our findings enrich understanding of female-led ethnic food entrepreneurship not as a demanding, overall unproductive undertaking for women with no other options, but as a realm of inspiration, community engagement and female-led innovation.

Our main contributions are the qualitative interrogation of perceptions and experiences of identity and difference in urban entrepreneurship from the point of view of our interviewees; providing concrete empirical evidence for it through our sample and proposing an approach to thinking women-led ethnic food entrepreneurship as a vehicle for translating urban superdiversity into social interactions across barriers of difference. We speak to the field of women entrepreneurship studies but specifically to the understudied realm of women-led food entrepreneurship, and to the cross-disciplinary field of (im)migrant entrepreneurship.

This study aims to synthesize and conceptualize the highly fragmented yet important literature on racial discrimination in entrepreneurship.

A bibliometric analysis and literature review were performed that involved 523 articles containing 26,926 references.

The bibliometric analysis identified three dominant research themes that comprehensively illustrate the state of research in this domain: strategic, sociocultural and individual-level perspectives. The synthesis of extant literature helped in formulating a holistic conceptual model that portrays the genuineness of racial discrimination in entrepreneurship. The sources, factors and impact of racial discrimination faced by entrepreneurs were identified. Based on the review and analysis of keywords, certain fruitful future research directions were formulated that will take the field forward.

This work is the first attempt to review the literature that narrows down the focus to racial discrimination in entrepreneurship (from other discriminations such as gender, cultural and religious discrimination) as one form of discrimination due to its unique origins and consequences.

The present study aimed to provide an understanding of the roles of community-based financial service organizations (i.e. rotating savings and credit associations [ROSCAs] as institutional pillars in facilitating low-income, unbanked consumers’ access to informal financial services).

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 39 low-income, unbanked consumers participating in ROSCAs in Pakistan, where only 21% of adults have a bank account and almost four out of five individuals live on a low income. The obtained data were analyzed using the thematic analysis technique.

ROSCAs’ regulatory, sociocultural and cognitive aspects facilitate low-income, unbanked consumers’ utilization of informal financial services owing to their approachability by, suitability for, and fairness to such consumers. Thus, they promote such consumers’ financial inclusion.

Low-income consumers are mostly unable to access formal financial services due to the existing supply- and demand-side impediments. Understanding ROSCAs’ institutional functioning can help formal financial service providers create more transformative financial services based on the positive institutional aspects of ROSCAs to enhance poor consumers’ financial inclusion and well-being.

The inclusion of low-income, unbanked consumers in formal banking services will help them better control their finances.

Many low-income, unbanked consumers in developing countries utilize informal financial services to meet their basic financial needs, but service researchers have rarely investigated how informal financial institutions function. The present study showed that ROSCAs, as informal institutions, meet low-income, unbanked consumers’ personal, social and financial needs in a befitting manner, which encourages such consumers to use the financial services offered by ROSCAs.

The purpose of microcredit is to offer small loans to people who are not covered by traditional financial channels. It can facilitate entrepreneurship, boosting local socio-economic development and improving environmental and political factors.

This paper aims to analyse microcredit in Italy, focusing on a project based in Rione Sanità, Naples. Rione Sanità is one of the poorest areas of Southern Italy, displaying high rates of criminality and unemployment, especially among youth, women, migrants and the vulnerable. The district is renowned for its fine and ancient handicrafts, food, trade and historical heritage – potential drivers for boosting tourism in the area. Qualitative methodologies were used to collect primary data through field visits and interviews with project bankers, local businesses, artisans, associations and religious representatives, project volunteers, as well as participation at local meetings. These data were corroborated by budget analysis based on the project's accounting.

The study shows encouraging results for the project and policy prospects. Despite the tiny starting numbers, there emerges a significant potential for microcredit to spread in the district, as in Southern Italy, providing an effective strategy to combat unemployment, usury and criminality, yielding community development and favoring broad societal challenges.

With this evidence, the paper attempts to shed some light and verify the potential of microfinance projects as a driver of sustainable development and ethical finance in poor areas of developed countries.