People talk about the 'refugee wave' particularly Europe, but even beyond. Due to language (and other) barriers, refugees are in a difficult position to integrate into new societies. It is not really visible that politicians have an entire solution in their pockets. Maybe 'grassroot solutions' come into play - like refugee entrepreneurship. This may include ventures initiated by refugees, initiatives for refugees and jointly with refugees. While entrepreneuship can only mitigate current problems (to some extent), the question pops up whether this is a vehicle at all - and, if so, under which circumstances. Feedback warmly welcome!
My impression is that we are very likely to see a lot of entrepreneurial behavior from refugees. Why? Because the proactiveness that you need to leave your home country, how disastrous the situation may be, is probably a general trait and we know that this is likely to translate into entrepreneurship. However, given the huge challenge of integration I also feel that we will not necessarily see the rule-breaking, disruptive type of entrepreneurial behavior but rather a lot of necessity entrepreneurship. Which is not a bad thing per se, but obviously the real challenge lies in raising the level of opportunity entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship -in its various forms- seems to be one of the solutions for livelihood and integration, but it is also very context-dependent how this instrument works. It is notable that refugees in particular suffer from non-acknowledgement of their prior education and are often therefore facing severe employment barriers. Entrepreneurship can provide an alternative to this dead-end, at least in our research on post-Soviet refugees this has worked very well in many cases. But again, there are differences among cohorts of refugees too. More work needs to be done!
There is indeed a lot to discuss in terms of the refugee status and context. Assulym seekers are mostly excluded from regular entrepreneurial activities. On the other hand, regular refugees do not engage themselves only in employment or unemployment "solutions" but also to regular and irregular entrepreneurial activities. The question should not be directed to some theoretical "full integration", but more as an instrument to participate and integrate withing the particular environment. For example, the recent book "Participation, Integration and Recognition: Changing Pathways to Immigrant Incorporation" edited by Elli Heikkilä, Auvo Kostiainen, Johanna Leinonen and Ismo Söderling (Institute of Migration, Migration Studies C24, Histories 4) provides useful discussions to illustrate this issue in various contexts. Entrepreneurship is not "the solution" for all refugees, but in many cases it has provided functioning alternatives and pathways to develop.
Concerning the challenges of necessity entrepreneurship in its various forms, there is one aspect that most integration policies have not managed well and that is the potential provided by the transnational networks that carry often a significant but unidentified potential for business development (cf. Drori et al. 2009). Most integration policy systems are rather host country oriented and cannot capture the pluralistic multifaceted potential adequately while focusing on the national or local context. The seminal work of Liesl Riddle and Jennifer Brinkerhoff has pointed out the significance of this potential in different settings. More work is surely needed to explore the positive side of the current situation and improve integration.
The claim that we are "very likely to see a lot of entrepreneurial behavior from refugees" is not substantiated by the evidence one bit. Instead what we have seen is massive costs to German economy. It is odd indeed that Andreas Kuckertz would make this claim considering these facts:
The costs so far, for the shelter, welfare and integration of the 1 million+ migrants brought to Germany has been €22 billion this year and an expected €27.6 billion next year.
Professor for Finance Bernd Raffelhüschen, has calculated a fiscal burden of 17 billion Euro per year provided that the refugees integrate quickly into the labour market. Assuming that the migrants are integrated into the labour market within six years, an unrealistically positive scenario by Raffelhüschen's own admission, he has estimated that the total costs of the refugees will amount to a staggering 900 billion Euro.
To this day, Turks in Germany, even after 50 years and three generations, remain poorly educated, some 30 percent don't have a school leaving certificate, and only 14 percent do a degree from Germany's top-level high schools, half the average of the German population. Only 20 percent of Turks have a regular job; the other 80% live on state social benefits. The Bertelsmann Foundation calculated that immigrants in Germany generally, before the massive migrant invasion of 2014 and 2015, were costing the government up to $20 billion per year.
And I have not said anything about the crime wave migrants have brought to Germany, and the rape epidemic!
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Mathematics
- Statistics
- Sampling Design
- Sample Size