Mobile Entrepreneurs: An Ethnographic Study of the Migration of the Highly Skilled

Migration, mobility, and globalization are transforming ways of working and living. Business activities, relationships and a sense of belonging are often not tied to any one place. This book explores biographies of highly mobile startup founders who often run startups that have been called born global. It describes how they move, how they orientate and perceive themselves, and how migration and mobility play a role beyond the physical act of `moving. Presenting current ethnographic research, the book critically discusses approaches in migration and mobility studies and the research field of the migration of the highly skilled. Increasing mobility and migration are a dominant contemporary topic. This book explores how founders of born global startups experience and navigate mobility. Based on an ethnographic field study, the book presents condensed accounts of biographies and examines the protagonists migration strategies, dimensions of mobilities, transurban spaces of movement, orientation schemes and self-perceptions. It asks how these living arrangements can be understood and questions the concepts of migration and highly skilled in this context. Instead, it suggests working with a multilayered understanding of mobility, transurban space and orientation schemes. The research design combines perspectives from economic entrepreneurship studies and migration and mobility studies. Instead of focussing on ethnic or national groups, it focusses on a professional group as an entity for research. See more