The contemporary global condition is one of heightened movement that positions many categories of voluntary migrants as mobile, global subjects who commute across porous borders, weaving back and forth for the purposes of work. Migrants to South Africa come from either cross border spaces such as Zimbabwe or Botswana, further Sub-Saharan countries or, as in this case, even further afield such as Gujarat India. When work in the host space does not materialise, that is to say, is not available, many transnational migrants actively create work by turning to opportunities of self-employment as entrepreneurs. This paper works on the understanding that this category of transnational migrants or migrant self-styled and small scale entrepreneurs, are to be understood within a discourse of commoditized labour and against a paradigm of mobilities, where their labour and specific 'skills set' is the active commodity brought to the host country. These non-professional migrants are seen to self-position themselves in the global market (albeit on a small scale) where labour is itself increasingly mobile, flexible, and self-created. This concept paper is exploratory and draws on earlier empirical studies with a small sample community of transnational migrant entrepreneurs from Gujarat India who work as barbers or salon artisans. In this paper I reflect on migrant entrepreneurs, micro-entrepreneurship, the informal economy and self-employment in the context of small scale individualized migration and transnational Indian migrants. © 2018 School of Social Work. All rights reserved.

Informal migrant Entrepreneurship

Botswana labor migration immigrant self employment Zimbabwe Sub-Saharan Africa India entrepreneur South Africa Gujarat informal sector migrant worker