Abstract:
Since the late 2000s, entrepreneurship has played an increasingly important role in economic policies designed to combat unemployment and stimulate economic growth (Florida, 2002; Carmichael et al., 2010; Light, 2010). Many countries implemented programs to support domestic entrepreneurship and devised visas to recruit entrepreneurs from abroad. Problematically, the imperative to acquire ‘foreign entrepreneurs’ coincides with growing nationalist pressure to tighten border control, particularly in OECD countries. This tension between economic and political pressures is reflected in the stipulation of eligibility criteria for entrepreneurial visas and their conditions of stay. Examining visas for entrepreneurs in six countries we consider how a new immigration category (the foreign entrepreneur) may be justified in the context of increasing antagonism toward immigrants; how governments define and select “good” visa applicants; and whether the foreign entrepreneur constitutes an under-theorised category in the literature on international business and entrepreneurship.