Ethnic boundary dynamics in immigrant entrepreneurship: a Barthian perspective

Figures & data

Figure 1. Mennonite communities and settlements in Belize

Table 1. Cases of Mennonite entrepreneurship

Settlement	Fieldwork periods	Name business	Ownership	Community	Business activity
Springfield	Three months fieldwork by a master’s student (in 2002); eight fieldwork periods by the 2^nd author (between 2002–2018), each comprising multiple visits	Family Trees	Schwartz family	Hoover Mennonite Church	Grow and sell trees
		Springfield Market	N/A (Initiated by a number of families who cultivate more crops than they consume)	Hoover Mennonite Church	Sell crops (e.g. salad, onions, melons, corn, potatoes)
		Good Meat	Local cattle farmer	Hoover Mennonite Church	Raise, slaughter and sell cattle
		Spring-Bel Products	Local farmer	Hoover Mennonite Church	Sell fruit trees, cream, eggs and spices
		The Mills	Four local farmers	Hoover Mennonite Church	Use (and rent out to other local farmers) the mill and horses to process corn
		Dogs on Leashes	Local farmer	Hoover Mennonite Church	Produce dog leashes (side activity to farming)
Shipyard	Two three-month fieldwork periods by master’s students (in 2004 and 2017); three fieldwork periods by the 2^nd author (between 2004–2015), each comprising multiple visits	Belizean Rice	Mr. Zimmerman	Kleine Gemeinde (formerly Old Colony)	Grow and sell rice and wheat
		Shipyard Butcher	Mr. Martin	Old Colony	Raise and slaughter cattle; wheat farmer
		The Chicken Company	Mr. Hein	Old Colony	Breed and sell chickens; produce chicken feed
		Belize Electrics	Local man	EMMC (formerly Old Colony)	Electrician
Spanish Lookout	Three three-month fieldwork periods by master’s students (in 2002, 2003, 2004); ten fieldwork periods by the 2^nd author (between 2002–2018), each comprising multiple visits	Cayo Dairies	Cooperative with some 75 local dairy farmers as shareholders	Kleine Gemeinde, more recently also EMMC	Produce and sell milk, cheese, ice cream, yoghurt and sour cream
		Digital Lookout	Co-owned by two men	EMMC	Sell and repair computers; Internet shop
		Chicken Walk	Cooperative with 120 Kleine Gemeinde chicken farmers as shareholders	Kleine Gemeinde	Slaughter, process and distribute chickens
		Beautiful Beans	Cooperative with local business people and farmers as shareholders	Kleine Gemeinde/EMMC	Process and export black eyed peas and red kidney beans
		Cayo Agro-Steel	Co-owned by three brothers and a few managers who were employed later	Kleine Gemeinde	Import and sell agricultural products and tools
		Main street Agro	Co-owned by three men from Spanish Lookout	Kleine Gemeinde	Import and sell agricultural equipment
		Best Product and Credit Store	Cooperative; shareholders are all inhabitant of Spanish Lookout who hold a bank account	Kleine Gemeinde	Supermarket and credit union
		Spanish Quilts	Local woman	Kleine Gemeinde	Home-based quilt making and selling
		Home Sewing	Local woman	Kleine Gemeinde	Sewing workshop and textiles store
Blue Creek Lookout	Seven three-month fieldwork periods by master’s students (in 2005, 2007, 2010, 2017); six fieldwork periods by the 2^nd author (between 2005–2010), each comprising multiple visits	Happy Papaya Fruits	Mr. Horst and Mr. Wolfe	EMMC	Grow and sell papayas
		Pyramid B	Established by two brothers but structured as cooperative; shareholders are Blue Creek farmers who supply rice	EMMC and Kleine Gemeinde	Rice milling
		Corozal Chicken	Cooperative; shareholders are Blue Creek poultry farmers	EMMC and Kleine Gemeinde	Poultry butchery and distribution
		Building Cow	Owned by a family	EMMC	Cattle farming and construction
		Clear water Butchery	Cooperative of some fifty shareholders, twenty of whom are cattle farmers	EMMC	Pig and cattle butchery
		BC Supermarket	Owned by a couple	EMMC	Supermarket

Table 2. Ethnic boundary dynamics in Mennonite entrepreneurship

Settlement	Name business	Bridging	Stretching	Allying
Springfield	Family Trees	They used to sell trees outside the settlement (through a middleman who resells in Belmopan), also to be able to buy new land	The expansion of the business is somewhat controversial in light of moral rules of sobriety and because outsiders now come into the community six days a week, but this has been discussed and approved within the community
	Springfield Market	Outsiders enter the settlement on market days to buy crops. Also, because of the market’s success, some families have started employing outside workers	Farmers successfully appealed to communal authorities to have a biweekly market inside the settlement, which was controversial at first	When the harvest is poor, family members sometimes go to Spanish Lookout for work.
	Good Meat	He sells meat to outsiders (informally as the community refuses to use the health authorities’ digital registration system). Also, he employs a Mestizo truck driver who lives just outside the Springfield entrance
	Spring-Bel Products	He sells goods at the Belmopan market on Tuesdays and Fridays. He buys necessities (bottles, buckets) from Chinese in Belmopan, and hires the stand from Belizean market authorities	He is the only one from Springfield who has a stand on the Belmopan market, which is controversial. (Another Springfield inhabitant used to have a stand there, but quit because he felt he was too much preoccupied with money and success)
	The Mills	Individual farmers who use the mill sell processed corn in Belize City
	Dogs on Leashes	He sells dog leashes to a store owner in Belmopan	He was asked by a store owner from Belize City to produce large quantities of dog leashes, but he refused because the resultant capital accumulation would have gone against moral rules of sobriety
Shipyard	Belizean Rice	He sells rice across Belize	He upset the Old Colony authorities by using rubber tires on his tractor, was excommunicated and registered with the Kleine Gemeinde community	He also sells rice to a rice processing firm in Blue Creek
	Shipyard Butcher	He sells meat across Belize, closely collaborates with Belizean health authorities, and employs Mestizo workers, including as truck driver and a cell phone operator	He negotiated that he is allowed to use electricity (necessary to process and store the meat) more than others, a truck with rubber tires to distribute the meat (as long as he is not driving), and a cell phone for receiving orders from customers (as long as he is not on the phone himself)
	The Chicken Company		He violated the religious-moral code by installing air conditioning in his offices building and has tense relations with the communal authorities	He sells chickens to more progressive Mennonites in Blue Creek, who resell to the Belizean market
	Belize Electrics	He used to be hired by people from across Belize	He was excommunicated together with some others for forming a bible study group (independently from the preachers), and subsequently went out of business because he lost customers from Shipyard as well as from other places because community members redirected potential customers to competitors
Spanish Lookout	Cayo Dairies	They sought advice from non-Mennonites to improve life stock, sell milk across Belize, employ non-Mennonites, have outposts across Belize to sell goods, have an outpost in Santa Elena to collect milk, and cater to outsiders who come to buy dairy products (especially ice cream)	A number of things were controversial, but finally accepted by the community as these were necessary to expand, including the acceptance of EMMC Mennonites as shareholders, the use of computers and mobile phones (initially for business purposes only, later also for personal use), the establishment of a power plant, the collection of milk among non-Mennonite farmers (who receive slightly more for the milk but cannot be shareholder), the use of a truck to collect milk from farmers, and health inspections from Belizean authorities. One thing not accepted (by the Kleine Gemeinde manager) is the introduction of a rum-raisin flavour of ice cream (as suggested by EMMC shareholders)	They import equipment and cows from Mennonites in Pennsylvania, USA, from different communities. Also, Kleine Gemeinde and EMMC can both be shareholders and hence collaborate by pooling resources
	Digital Lookout	They import computer parts from the USA and cater to non-Mennonite customers	They negotiated approval to sell computers, which was hard at first as computers and Internet were seen as violations of religious-moral code
	Chicken Walk	They have outposts in Belizean cities to sell frozen chicken (and export some) and employ non-Mennonites	Some shareholders appealed in favour of buying chickens from EMMC farmers, which was accepted, also in order to avoid a competing EMMC cooperative to emerge in Spanish Lookout	They buy chickens from EMMC Mennonites (but still only Kleine Gemeinde Mennonites can be shareholder)
	Beautiful Beans	They employ non-Mennonites and export beans and peas	They were the first business in Spanish Lookout to export products and hence earn foreign currency, which was controversial at first but is now accepted	They employ Old Colony and Hoover Mennonite workers from Springfield and Lower and Upper Barton Creek
	Cayo Agro-Steel	They import products (especially seeds) from the USA, employ non-Mennonites and have customers from around Belize as well as Guatemala		They import goods from different Mennonite communities in the USA
	Main street Agro	They import products from the USA, Brazil, UK, Canada and Italy, sell products across Belize, Mexico and Guatemala, and employ one non-Mennonite. One of the owners employs another non-Mennonite to look after his farm	Three owners were once co-owners of another firm, but they had a moral disagreement around technology-use with another co-owner who was an EMMC member; they thus split off to set up a competitor firm	Import goods from different Mennonite communities in the USA and Canada
	Best Product and Credit Store	They cater to outsiders who come to buy groceries	The establishment was controversial as it attracts many outsider customers, but it was set up nevertheless as the cooperative benefits so many Spanish Lookout inhabitants
	Spanish Quilts	She sells the quilts to tourists next to locals	A married woman making money is frowned upon in the community, but since she channels her profits to her husband (who arranges the household finances) it is less problematic
	Home Sewing	She has some customers from Belmopan next to locals	A married woman making money is frowned upon in the community, but they need the money having returned from Canada and trying to save money to buy a house
Blue Creek	Happy Papaya Fruits	They export papayas to the USA and employ Mestizo labourers. During the start-up phase, they visited plantations in Guatemala for advice and hired management consultants and fruit experts from Canada and the USA	The use of machinery such as crop-duster aircrafts and GPS was controversial at first, but accepted because the papaya business is vital for the Blue Creek economy	They sought advice from Mennonites in Little Belize during the start-up phase, hire people from the Old Colony community in Indian Creek as workers and managers, and provided credit to Indian Creek farmers moving into papaya cultivation
	Pyramid B	They employ non-Mennonites, sell rice across Belize, and import machinery from the USA	The use of machinery such as tractors and trucks was controversial at first, but accepted because the rice industry is vital for the Blue Creek economy.	The firm collaborates with other Mennonite rice millers from Blue Creek and Shipyard, and one non-Mennonite miller, who also manages their joint distribution centre in Belize City. Also, one employee is an Old Colony Mennonite
	Corozal Chicken	They have sales offices across Belize, closely collaborate with Belizean health authorities, and employ non-Mennonites. Also, one non-Mennonite farmer supplies poultry	The use of machinery, such as trucks, and registering cattle in the health authorities’ digital registration system were controversial at first, but accepted because the chicken industry is vital for the Blue Creek economy	They bought the poultry butchery of the Old Colony community in Shipyard, which effectively meant that poultry farmers from Shipyard also became chicken suppliers
	Building Cow	Half of their construction contracts are acquired via public tendering (government contracts for building roads and airport)	The family was the first to use a computer and Internet, which was controversial, as was the use of machinery like bulldozers and registering cattle in the health authorities’ digital registration system, but these were accepted because the business (together with a second construction business) is vital for the Blue Creek economy	They sometimes go to Shipyard to have tools made
	Clear water Butchery	They hire an advisor from the UK to help meet health standards and closely collaborate with Belizean health authorities	The registering of cattle in the health authorities’ digital registration system was controversial at first, but accepted because the cattle industry is vital for the Blue Creek economy
	BC Supermarket	Import goods from across Belize and North America	The selling of cigarettes and alcoholic drinks is prohibited in Blue Creek, but silently tolerated because it is sold ‘under the counter’