Market-based resistance: how migrant social enterprises navigate hostile institutional environments

Maria Villares-Varela; Monder Ram; Shuai Qin; Gerardo Javier Arriaga-Garcia

doi:10.1080/01419870.2025.2570399

Market-based resistance: how migrant social enterprises navigate hostile institutional environments

Maria Villares-Varela^*, Monder Ram, Shuai Qin, Gerardo Javier Arriaga-Garcia

^*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

This paper examines how migrant-led social enterprises (MSEs) use market mechanisms as tools of everyday resistance in increasingly hostile environments. Drawing on qualitative longitudinal research conducted between 2015 and 2022, we assess how Pinewood, a UK-based migrant social enterprise, navigated profound institutional changes through innovative organisational practices. Our theoretical approach synthesises “mixed embeddedness theory” with “everyday resistance” scholarship to reveal how MSEs maintain legitimacy and pursue social transformation. The analysis identifies three key mechanisms through which market-based resistance operates: strategic professionalisation, innovative service development, and the creation of alternative economic networks. These mechanisms emerged through organisational responses to critical incidents, including the 2015 refugee crisis, Brexit-related turbulence, and COVID-19 adaptations. The study advances understanding of how migrant-led organisations engage in everyday resistance through market mechanisms, contributing to debates on migrant enterprise, institutional navigation, and social change within hostile migration regimes.

Original language	English
Number of pages	22
Journal	Ethnic and Racial Studies
Early online date	9 Oct 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2025.2570399
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 9 Oct 2025

Bibliographical note

Copyright © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.

Funding

This research has been funded by the University of Birmingham’s ESRC Impact Acceleration Account (2015–2017) and by the Aston Business School, Birmingham.

Keywords

Immigration
everyday resistance
hostile environment
mixed embeddedness
qualitative longitudinal research
social enterprise

Access to Document

10.1080/01419870.2025.2570399Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Market-based resistance how migrant social enterprises navigate hostile institutional environments
Copyright © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Final published version, 1.65 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Cite this

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abstract = "This paper examines how migrant-led social enterprises (MSEs) use market mechanisms as tools of everyday resistance in increasingly hostile environments. Drawing on qualitative longitudinal research conducted between 2015 and 2022, we assess how Pinewood, a UK-based migrant social enterprise, navigated profound institutional changes through innovative organisational practices. Our theoretical approach synthesises “mixed embeddedness theory” with “everyday resistance” scholarship to reveal how MSEs maintain legitimacy and pursue social transformation. The analysis identifies three key mechanisms through which market-based resistance operates: strategic professionalisation, innovative service development, and the creation of alternative economic networks. These mechanisms emerged through organisational responses to critical incidents, including the 2015 refugee crisis, Brexit-related turbulence, and COVID-19 adaptations. The study advances understanding of how migrant-led organisations engage in everyday resistance through market mechanisms, contributing to debates on migrant enterprise, institutional navigation, and social change within hostile migration regimes.",

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Market-based resistance: how migrant social enterprises navigate hostile institutional environments

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Bibliographical note

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Keywords

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