Immigrant Entrepreneurs: Migrant Social Networks of Tom Yam Restaurants in Malaysia

Abstract

This paper aims to better understand immigrant entrepreneurs by examining the resources of their migrant social networks’ conducive to the construction of Tom Yam restaurants in Malaysia. For this purpose, I conducted in-depth interviews with Tom Yam restaurant immigrant entrepreneurs in Malaysia who are Thai and Melayu Muslim from Southern Thailand chosen by use of the snowballing sampling technique in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. It was found that in the Tom Yam restaurant business in Malaysia there is an indispensable interconnection between migrant entrepreneurs’ social networks based on ethnicity and their establishment of successful businesses. Migrant social networks play a significant role in the immigrant entrepreneurialism. These networks represent a meso level study linking explanations of personal relationships, which lie at the micro level, to social structure factors, which are considered to lie at the macro level