ABSTRACT
Like the blue-collar worker in the era of large-scale industrial production, today the small business owner in the service sector is subjected to precarious working conditions. Due to low formal entry requirements, self-employment in the service sector tends to attract immigrants, whose ventures often cater to their community members or commodify cultural practices. Research in sociology and economics claims that the success of such immigrant businesses is linked to the owner’s level of proficiency in the language of the host economy. By focusing on the case of a female Thai immigrant entrepreneur in Germany who successfully operates a traditional Thai massage salon in a rural town, this chapter attempts to illustrate that an immigrant entrepreneur’s key professional practices are not exclusively sustained by proficiency in a particular language but rather the strategic utilization of interactional, semiotic and material resources. In addition, contrary to the widely held assumption that proficiency in the language of the economy is a prerequisite for immigrants to successfully start and operate a business, the case presented here strongly suggests that it is the prospect to engage in meaningful work as well as the professional practices themselves that stimulate an immigrant’s language acquisition process.
