Abstract

Purpose: The experiential contributions of migrants has been depicted in previous studies as underperformance and failure. This chapter offers a new approach called Resilience Network Orientations that re-orientates and repositions the entrepreneurial behaviours of migrants into resilience studies. Previous research adopting case study methodology missed this link between migration and resilience.
Design/methodology: A case study methodological approach involving migrants’ employment trajectories from different parts of the world constitutes the article’s data. By critiquing McWilliams and Smart’s (1993) ‘structure-conduct-performance’ framework, I propose Resilience Network Orientations as a way to integrate structures, opportunities and networks. This approach offers resilience as an alternative perspective to the classical migration discourse of underperformance.
Originality/value: The study found that migrants’ negative employment perspectives are multifaceted whereas Resilience Network Orientations (RNOs) provides a novel methodological alternative highlighting the social and materialistic benefits for migration studies. In order to get out of the underperformance trap that the ‘SCP’ triad has normalised minorities’ efforts in, this article uses case study accounts to shift the migration discourse to one that features a multiplicity of inter-personal, inter-cultural, inter-organisational and inter-continental resilience network capacities.