Engaging with super-diversity: New migrant businesses and the research–policy nexus

Abstract

Growing population diversity, referred to as ‘super-diversity’, has transformed the UK landscape, yet many areas of social science and policy appear reluctant to engage with the phenomenon. This article examines the ‘research–policy’ nexus as it applies one area of super-diversity: that is, businesses run by new migrants. Based on a year-long collaboration with a regional business support intermediary, the study investigate how policymakers, working with academics, handle the complexities that attend super-diversity in relation to enterprise. The study adopts an ‘engaged scholarship’ approach comprising participant observation and interviews with community-based intermediaries and business owners from 22 new migrant communities. It finds that policymakers and practitioners struggle to cope with the complexities that attend the processes of super-diversity. The danger of this is a perpetuation of a form of ‘ethnic managerialism’. However, by working collaboratively, academics and practitioners can deploy complementary bodies of knowledge to develop constructive intervention to support new migrant businesses.

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