Open research questions in Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy

What the literature leaves open

• Collectively, the narratives contained within this book—including others not mentioned in this review—expose intrinsic connections between memory, identity, place, and healing that need to be explored in higher education to develop strategies for helping students, especially refugee students, access their trauma and heal it away from the context within which it occured.

  Jaffer, T., & Mouallem, O. (Eds.). (2024). Back where I came from: On culture, identity, and home. Book Hug Press. · 2026 · DOI

• to support Reeves, P. M., Zappe, S. E., & Follmer, D. J. (2019). A comparison of the types of problems encountered by entrepreneurial students and successful professional entrepreneurs.

  Understanding the Nature of Ethnic Entrepreneurship: A Systematic Literature Review · 2026 · DOI

• This study is subject to several limitations that suggest directions for future research. Empirically, the sample is limited to Iranian Muslim women residing temporarily in Malaysia, which constrains generalization. While the study does not aim for statistical generalization, comparative research across other Muslim-majority, patriarchal, or politically constrained contexts would help assess the analytical transferability of the motivational pathways identified here. In addition, study captures motivation at a particular point in time. Longitudinal research could examine how motivations evolve across the life course and how outcomes such as increased confidence, shifts in family dynamics, or changing sociopolitical conditions feed back into future mobility decisions. Finally, future research could explore how women’s travel motivations intersect with broader social and political movements related to gender equality, rights, and mobility justice, further clarifying both the transformative potential and the limits of travel in restrictive settings.

  Intersectionality and Female Solo Travel: Rethinking Motivations Amidst Conservative Gender Norms · 2026 · DOI

• Future research should deepen understanding of how power, race, and epistemology intersect to shape the valuation of “skill” in contemporary migration regimes. Comparative analyses across provinces and sectors could reveal how varied regulatory contexts influence integration outcomes. Longitudinal research would also illuminate how skilled immigrants’ trajectories evolve as they navigate recredentialing, retraining, and occupational mobility. The perspectives of in underrepresented fields, and immigrant women, migrants in rural or non-metropolitan contexts remain particularly underexplored. Additionally, scholarship must move beyond documenting barriers to evaluating structural interventions, including employer-led diversity initiatives, alternative credentialing models, and community-driven advocacy. Participatory research methodologies, grounded in collaboration with immigrant professionals, can generate praxis-oriented knowledge that informs equitable policy reform.

  Merit, Migration, and Marginalization: Exploring the Skilled Migration Paradox Through the Lived Experiences of Racialized Immigrants in Canada · 2026 · DOI

• Second, we explore the cultural repertoires available to immigrants in articulating their claims of belonging in the under-explored context of states with a legacy of ethnic nationalism, demonstrating that the relative success of these cultural repertoires in facilitating immigrants’ belonging reflects their alignment with an enduring conception of Czech national identity that emphasizes shared language, ancestry, and culture.

  Privileged, ambivalent, or contested? How cultural repertoires facilitate different forms of belonging among immigrants in Czechia · 2026 · DOI

• Most of the parents in this study had tertiary level education, and their socioeconomic status was high in their home countries. This study did not include the voices of participants from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, which would have added to the understanding of how those with limited education or those dealing with other challenges such as a lack of financial support experience their child/ren’s careers education. Additionally, the majority of the parents who participated in this study were female (13 out of 16). This is particularly true in many immigrant families which tend to have more ‘traditional’ family structures. In some cultures, mothers are not supposed to work. Significantly, in this study, some of the female participants noted that fathers were more involved with their child/children’s schools because they have a higher level of English proficiency and thus can communicate better with the staff. Pursuing diversity through a more non-selective sample might have led to a deeper understanding of the phenomenon or via examining fewer but more contrasting cases. The current study suggests that school communication policies should be developed in collaboration with immigrant parents to ensure that the communication is effective and meets the needs of parents and students. For example, schools can establish parent advisory committees consisting of representatives from immigrant parents, who can provide valuable insights and perspectives on communication practices. These committees can work together with school administrators and staff to co-create communication strategies that are culturally responsive and address the specific challenges faced by immigrant families. Structural economic disruptions, including but not limited to pandemic-related recessions, have created complex employment dynamics for immigrant families. Career advisors observed that during periods of economic instability, some immigrant youth unexpectedly became primary earners when their parents faced job losses. This phenomenon reflects broader patterns of labour market precarity (Standing, 2009), where immigrant communities often experience disproportionate impacts during economic downturns while simultaneously demonstrating resilience through youth employment. While these observations emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, they highlight enduring systemic vulnerabilities that warrant further research, particularly regarding how immigrant youth navigate employment challenges across different economic cycles. Building on the strengths of the STF, which emphasises career development as an ongoing process and acknowledges the unique journey of each individual (Patton & McMahon, 2021), this study proposes longitudinal research to gain a deeper understanding of how career influences evolve over time. The study would follow a group of immigrant students over an extended period, potentially from high school through early career stages, and explore how various influences on their career choices shift and interact throughout their journey. While this study provides insights into immigrant parents' perspectives, the sample composition (with 9 of 16 parent participants from Farsi-speaking backgrounds) may influence the generalisability of findings. Cultural specificities in educational values and migration experiences within this subgroup particularly the strong emphasis on academic achievement observed, could differ from other immigrant communities New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies (2026) 61:187–2141 3 206 (e.g. immigrant from Fiji). Future research should purposively sample across more diverse ethnic groups to test the transferability of these findings.

  Parental Influence in Careers Education: Perspectives of Immigrant Parents and Careers Advisors in Aotearoa New Zealand · 2026 · DOI

• The results of the study demonstrate that because of their low educational attainment—the majority of migrant employees having only completed elementary or junior high school—migrant workers have limited knowledge and skill, therefore it is difficult to find a job when they finished the contract and back home.

  The Socio-Entrepreneurship Potential of Migrant Workers during the Covid-19 Era: A Mapping Study in Suralaga, East Lombok · 2023 · DOI

• This research offers a unique insight into female and immigrant entrepreneurship, thereby casting light on an aspect of Sri Lankan female entrepreneurs lives in the UK, which is currently under-researched.

  Are gender and immigration a double disadvantage? : Exploring experiences of Sri Lankan female Immigrant Entrepreneurs in London, United Kingdom · 2022 · DOI

• Drawing on 17-months of multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in the Netherlands and Ghana, we add to the emerging literature on ‘return’ mobilities by analysing young people of Ghanaian background, irrespective of whether they or their parents migrated, and by looking at an under-researched form of mobility that they engage in: that of attending funerals in Ghana.

  ‘Why Are You Not Crying?’ · 2021 · DOI

• This article investigates the understudied phenomenon of secondary non-take-up (NTU) among Latino immigrants in Madrid, London, and New York City from their own perspective.

  Caseworker Prejudice: Exploring Secondary Non-Take-Up from Below Among Latino Immigrants in Madrid, London, and New York City · 2021 · DOI

• Through rich ethnographic research that includes formal interviews with almost one hundred respondents, mostly women, in the understudied IT sites of Seattle, Washington, and Bangalore and Hyderabad in India, Bhatt deftly engages the complex experiences of these "embodied subjects of transnationalism" (ix) who are positioned between and across geographic locations, immigration statuses, and company affiliations.

  High-Tech Housewives: Indian IT Workers, Gendered Labor and Transmigration by Amy Bhatt · 2019 · DOI

• Ultimately, there was no consensus reached in the Shida case, and though many lament the passing of the area’s unique culture and many of its businesses, the dynamics between the small-scale mobilizations in Shida generated invaluable critical local wisdoms that acknowledge the desire for multiple communities in a physical locality.

  Beyond the residents–businesses clash – urban movements and cultural struggles in Shida, Taipei (2007–2015) · 2017 · DOI

• Lacunae in immigration policy, undocumented work and spatial and social isolation, coupled with prejudiced views regarding women’s ability to undertake collective action, are among the reasons why it may seem impossible that these women could engage in organising activities – and therefore also why these activities remain understudied.

  Weaving Solidarity: Migrant Women’s Organisations in Athens · 2017 · DOI

• Few studies have addressed how Latino families resident in the United States for many years have been impacted by the economic downturn of 2007–2009, the household economic strategies these families adopted to cope with financial distress, or if such efforts are affected by localized responses to immigration policy.

  Finding a Way to Get By: Latino Household Economic Strategies in a Time of Economic and Political Strain · 2016 · DOI

• Cowan, and Tuyet-Lan Pho, have sought to narrow the gap in the literature by pulling together a collection of studies that examine the adaptation and assimilation of Southeast Asian families in Lowell, Massachusetts, a midsized city that is home to a large number of Vietnamese, Lao, and Cambodian immigrant families.

  Review of T. Pho, J. N. Gerson, & S. R. Cowan's (Eds.) (2007) Southeast Asian Refugees and Immigrants in the Mill City · 2015 · DOI

• Drawing from a panel session held in June 2013 at the 19th International Symposium on Society and Resource Management in Estes Park, CO, this article offers a review of the current state of research on amenity migration and calls for future research to more comprehensively address critical gaps in the literature.

  Amenity Migration in the New Global Economy: Current Issues and Research Priorities · 2015 · DOI

• The article aims to trace the development of the outline for migrant family research by discussing the social, empirical and theoretical premises that has lead the author for further research of families touched by migration through the lens of changes, resources, definitions of the situations and impact management practices.

  The Development of The Outline For Migrant Family Research: The Case of Lithuania · 2013 · DOI

• Considering this as a critical case, we attempt to address a gap in the literature on ethnic minority enterprise, which has struggled to address the ‘diversification of diversity’ that attends the arrival of new communities in the UK.

  Transnationalism as a Force for Ethnic Minority Enterprise? The Case of Somalis in Leicester · 2010 · DOI

• Furthermore, it is argued Hage's notion of 'cosmopolitan capital' is insufficiently Bourdieusian as it assumes the domination effects of cultural capital are due to the commodity relations it enables, rather than being a consequence of its unequal distribution and (therefore) its capacity to realise class-specific social advantages.

  Cultural capital and cultural diversity: some problems in Ghassan Hage's account of cosmopolitan multiculturalism · 2008 · DOI

• It also enables us to spotlight the role of the ghetto as a symbolic incubator and matrix for the production of a spoiled identity, and suggests that it should be studied by analogy with other institutions for the forced confinement of dispossessed and dishonored groups such as the reservation, the refugee camp, and the prison.

  The Two Faces of the Ghetto · 2005

• There are conflicting evidence and conclusions about whether the enclave economy creates a mobility trap or an alternative opportunity for immigrants; much of the confusion has to do with ambiguities in defining the conceptual and actual boundaries of the enclave economy (Portes and Jensen, 1987, 1992; Sanders and Nee, 1992).

  The Consumer Market of the Enclave Economy: A Study of Advertisements in a Chinese Daily Newspaper in Toronto · 1999

• Acculturation should be studied as a global phenomenon involving the analysis of two or several cultures considered as a configuration of networks of interindividual relationships, rather than regarding the civilizations in contact as absolutely distinct entities each one responding to its own determinism.

  Acculturation · 1971 · DOI

• If such differentiae are lacking, nothing happens: the ’backward’ area becomes depopulated, or a depressed area within a larger unit, or an object of communal charity and assistance. However, the aggregation of individual perceptions of structural inequality alone is insufficient for the development of collective solidarity.

  Towards a Theory of Ethnic Change' · 1971 · DOI

• • Considering the global scope of migration, future research should investigate similar questions across diverse national and regional contexts.

  South Asian Immigrant Women’s Cultural Hybridization in Canada: A Postcolonial Feminist Intersectional Framework · 2026 · DOI

• While the paper is based on qualitative methods, it derives its theoretical inspiration from the field of sociology of translation, framing brokers as a form of ‘translational expertise’: an important informative perspective on migration brokerage, which remains significantly under-researched.

  Producing and shaping migrant domestic workers’ everyday lives: The role of the migration broker · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy

• Immigrant entrepreneurship: A review and research agenda · Journal of Business Research · 2020 · 489 citations
• Gender Matters: Ethnographers Bring Gender from the Periphery toward the Core of Migration Studies · International Migration Review · 2006 · 389 citations
• Suicide: A 15‐Year Review of the Sociological Literature Part II: Modernization and Social Integration Perspectives · Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior · 2000 · 250 citations
• Cultural Diversity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship: Firm‐level Evidence from <scp>L</scp>ondon · Economic Geography · 2013 · 244 citations
• Transnational gentrification, tourism and the formation of ‘foreign only’ enclaves in Barcelona · Urban Studies · 2020 · 217 citations
• Migration status and transnational mothering: the case of Filipino migrants in France · Global Networks · 2009 · 174 citations
• Ethos of independence across regions in the United States: The production-adoption model of cultural change. · American Psychologist · 2010 · 125 citations
• Gig work as migrant work: The platformization of migration infrastructure · Environment and Planning A Economy and Space · 2021 · 125 citations
• Enclaves and Entrepreneurs: Assessing the Payoff for Immigrants and Minorities <sup/> · International Migration Review · 2003 · 105 citations
• Ethnic Minority Businesses in Scotland and the Role of Social Capital · International Small Business Journal Researching Entrepreneurship · 2007 · 104 citations

Most recent work

• Distinction by design: Classed national identity in Dubai’s market economy · Current Sociology · 2026
• Producing and shaping migrant domestic workers’ everyday lives: The role of the migration broker · Economy and Society · 2026
• Toward a socio-anthropology of intra-urban residential (im)mobilities. The case of Filipino migrants in Italy · Mobilities · 2026
• Intersectionality and Female Solo Travel: Rethinking Motivations Amidst Conservative Gender Norms · Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies · 2026
• From Norway to Latvia: exploring reasons for return, experiences, and transnational living · Journal of Baltic Studies · 2026
• Unsettling relationalities: migrant couples’ geographies of attachment · Eurasian Geography and Economics · 2026
• Understanding Acculturation in Subsequent Generation Chinese and Nepali Communities in the Indian Context · Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies · 2026
• Understanding the Nature of Ethnic Entrepreneurship: A Systematic Literature Review · Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies · 2026
• Integration, ethnic concentration and migrant self-employment in EU countries · REGION · 2026
• Segmented Network Embeddedness: Influence of Cultural Capital on Social Networks and Business Models Among Chinese Entrepreneurs in Ikebukuro, Tokyo · International Migration Review · 2026

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