Navigating hostility, pursuing hospitality: Conceptualizing community engagement among migrant women entrepreneurs in peripheral areas.

This article examines how migrant women entrepreneurs in Lincolnshire, a rural and peripheral area in eastern England, engage with local communities by creating hospitable spaces through their businesses and how experiences of hospitality and hostility influence these entrepreneurial and community activities. Drawing on interviews with 21 Polish and Lithuanian migrant women business owners, the study identifies three main approaches: (1) fostering inclusive social infrastructure that bridges migrant and non-migrant groups; (2) creating safe, supportive spaces primarily for co-ethnic migrant communities; and (3) adopting pragmatic or disengaged stances in response to hostility and rejection from local communities. The findings highlight migrant women entrepreneurs as active social infrastructure makers who navigate complex local dynamics, with their community engagement shaped by both internal motivations and external sociopolitical contexts marked by varying degrees of acceptance. The article underscores the importance of recognizing and supporting migrant women’s entrepreneurial roles in enhancing social cohesion and addressing gaps in peripheral areas, while also acknowledging the challenges posed by local hostility.