Migrant entrepreneurship in Russia: structural capabilities

The article considers the key structural factors determining the entrepreneurial activity of migrants in Russia, namely the main conditions, characteristics and development trends of small and medium-size entrepreneurship (both Russian and migrant’s). The article represents the data of Russian statistics, as well as the results of international studies on the state of entrepreneurship in Russia as a whole, as well as the place and role of migrant entrepreneurs representing mainly the countries of the former Soviet Union. These data are also supplemented by the first results of the project «Entrepreneurship among International Migrants in Russia: Structural Capabilities versus Ethnic resources» (2017-2018), conducted under the Russian Foundation for Basic Research. In the conclusion, the author underlines that only ethnic resources cannot explain the entrepreneurship of migrants. Only a comprehensive analysis of migrant entrepreneurship strategies (by the example of migrant entrepreneurs from Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan) aimed at identifying both ethnic and non-ethnic factors, especially the structural conditions for entrepreneurship in a particular host country, which determine the choice of a particular model of economic behavior, will help overcoming a one-sided view on the entrepreneurship of migrants.