Article Journal of Contemporary History 2014, Vol. 49(1) 228–251 Negotiating Integration ! The Author(s) 2013 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav in Berlin’s Waxing DOI: 10.1177/0022009413505664 Studios: Brazilian jch.sagepub.com Migrants’ Gendered Appropriation of Urban Consumer Spaces and ‘Ethnic’ Entrepreneurship Maria Lidola Freie Universita¨t Berlin, Germany Abstract Current discussions on immigration in Germany emphasize the economic benefits of migrant economies and ethnic entrepreneurship, pointing to the positive effects on the ‘integration’ of migrants into the German labour market and into German society. This article focuses on the ethnographic example of Brazilian small-scale businesswomen in Berlin, who run cosmetic salons specialized in body hair removal, and how they embed their businesses in the Berlin landscape of multicultural consumption. On the basis of their migration trajectories I discuss these women’s manifold cultural, gendered and class-informed strategies of negotiating integration, encompassing not just their eco- nomic activity, the role of independent work and the associated social effects, but also the commodified beauty practice itself. Thereby, the article inquires into conceptions of emancipation connected to migrant women’s entrepreneurship in their everyday life that is still highly constrained by migration and gender regimes. Keywords beauty practices, Brazilian business women, ethnic entrepreneurship, migrant integration, work Corresponding author: Maria Lidola, Freie Universita¨t Berlin, Institute for Latin American Studies/Department of Cultural Anthropology, Ru¨desheimer Str. 54–6, 14197 Berlin, Germany. Email:
[email protected] Konstanzer Online-Publikations-System (KOPS) URL: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:352-2-vypfgvor4rpw7 Lidola 229 In current debates on immigration in Germany high-ranking politicians allege that multicultural policies have failed due to the persistent deficiencies in integrating migrants socially and culturally.