Amidst the recurrence of xenophobic attacks across South Africa, immigration researchers have
examined the nexus among immigrant business practices, xenophobic discourses and specific
contexts of inclusion and exclusion in South African cities. Recent migration literature has
highlighted differentiation within immigrant business communities while also turning attention
to the spatialities of immigrant businesses. Building on this research, we examine multiple fields
of economic and political power at work in inner-city immigrant business areas of Johannesburg
as capitalist business and economies of scale have begun to replace bootstrap entrepreneurship in
certain areas. We employ Bourdieu’s conception of fields of power and de Certeau’s distinction
between strategies of the powerful and tactics of the subordinate to examine immigrant economic
practices at multiple levels within and between the business communities. Based on interviews
and extensive site observation in inner-city Johannesburg, our study examines the broad
strategies of immigrant groups, such as enclave formation and immigrant insertion in niche
markets. We highlight how overlapping interests within and beyond immigrant groups create
specific realms within the ambit of broad strategies—realms that informal workers, both foreign
and local, navigate and appropriate.