Search results

1 – 10 of over 8000
Article
Publication date: 13 August 2021

Shuai Qin

For the developed economies in Europe, to which refugees move, and as refugees’ enterprising expectations evolve, emerging cognitive factors have become closely intertwined with…

Abstract

Purpose

For the developed economies in Europe, to which refugees move, and as refugees’ enterprising expectations evolve, emerging cognitive factors have become closely intertwined with their post-arrival encounters. However, the link between refugees’ social cognition and entrepreneurship commitment tends to be overlooked. This paper aims to join the international debates regarding cognitions of refugee entrepreneurship and explain the bewildering effects of refugees’ social cognitive dissonance on refugee business support.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper reviews the extant knowledge of refugee entrepreneurship and refugee business support. It synthesizes the literature on cognitive dissonance, multiple embeddedness and hospitality to inform a conceptual model and explain the ramifications of refugees’ entrepreneurial cognition on refugee business support and how public attitudes in the destination transform accordingly.

Findings

This paper illustrates the prevalent imbalance between the provision of support and refugees’ anticipations in developed economies. A conceptual toolkit is framed to disclose the succeeding influence of cognitive dissonance on the performances of refugee business support. This framework indicates that the cognitive dissonance could elicit heterogeneous aftermath of refugee business support service, resulting in a deteriorated/ameliorated hospitality context.

Originality/value

This conceptual toolkit unfolds cognitive ingredients in the refugee entrepreneurship journey, providing a framework for understanding refugee business support and the formation of hospitality under cognitive dissonance. Practically, it is conducive to policymakers nurturing rational refugee anticipation, enacting inclusive business support and enhancing hospitality in the host country.

Details

Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, vol. 17 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6204

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 24 August 2021

Francesca Speed and Anastasia Kulichyova

The purpose of this paper is to understand the role talent intermediaries can play in supporting the access and development of talent from forcibly displaced backgrounds.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to understand the role talent intermediaries can play in supporting the access and development of talent from forcibly displaced backgrounds.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors draw on a single case study design of UK charitable organisation, the Council for At-Risk Academics, to consider the global talent management of academics in exile.

Findings

This paper finds that specialised intermediaries can facilitate access to and the successful performance (individual and organisational) of refugee talent. Findings reveal a major shift in talent recruitment processes that are required in order for refugees to take up international work opportunities and highlight the importance of viewing individual potential, organisational support and opportunity access as a precursor for talent development and impact.

Practical implications

This paper shows that profession-specific intermediary support that fosters cross-sector partnerships, better addresses the talent development and workforce integration challenges of refugees.

Originality/value

Application of a multi-level relational framework shows the reasons for, and reality of forced displacement for academics in exile. Focusing on the academic sector demonstrates the importance of protecting both individuals and values at the heart of professions subject to persecution during war and unrest. In highlighting how refugee talent intermediaries can support individuals to breach the canvas ceiling and facilitate the global mobility of refugee talent, a contribution is made to existing debates in diversity, global talent management and migration studies.

Details

Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, vol. 8 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2051-6614

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 July 2021

Karijn Nijhoff

Recent refugees in the Netherlands face barriers on the road to starting their own business. Few studies have looked at barriers specific to recent refugees. In this article…

Abstract

Purpose

Recent refugees in the Netherlands face barriers on the road to starting their own business. Few studies have looked at barriers specific to recent refugees. In this article, these barriers are analysed through the eyes of support programmes that aim to help recent refugees to become an entrepreneur.

Design/methodology/approach

The experiences of seven support programmes were explored using in-depth interviews to evaluate how the approaches were supporting recent refugees. The programmes were mostly private initiatives with public funding, focused on local support for recent refugees. They were first interviewed in 2017, followed by in-depth interviews in 2018. Their narratives were used to gain in-depth impressions of the route recent refugees have to follow to start a business.

Findings

The results strongly suggest that the most prominent obstacles recent refugees face are connected to the political-institutional context of Dutch society. National provisions and the local implementation of these provisions have created a complicated web that is hard to untangle for newcomers. Language skills and network formation are additional barriers.

Research limitations/implications

These barriers are not overcome by using traditional education and training programmes focused around skills and motivation of the potential entrepreneur. Support programmes should focus on support to understand or overcome the bureaucratic complexity. The trainings should also increase language skills and offer support in network formation.

Originality/value

The empirical data in this study reveal that the focus of training programmes may have to shift to overcome barriers in the political-institutional context.

Details

Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, vol. 28 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1462-6004

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 21 July 2022

Anthony Tibaingana, Matt Baillie Smith and Robert Newbery

Drawing on current development practice and literature on Entrepreneurial support organizations (ESO), such as accelerators, incubators, and labs, this chapter explores how

Abstract

Drawing on current development practice and literature on Entrepreneurial support organizations (ESO), such as accelerators, incubators, and labs, this chapter explores how refugees in Uganda are supported through entrepreneurial approaches. Following an exploratory method, interviews were conducted with proprietors and managers of ESO in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. The findings show that while the majority of these organizations purport to follow an innovation discourse, in reality, they support refugees through a mixture of inclusion, resilience, and innovation-led approaches. Inclusion-led approaches focus on basic language skills, establishing peer relationships, and access to survival essentials. Resilience-led approaches nurture livelihood skills, building community ties, and access to seed-corn grants. Innovation-led approaches develop entrepreneurial skills, establishing extra-local connectivity and access to micro-finance. This chapter highlights the critical importance of inclusion and resilience-led approaches in developing supportive ESO for refugees.

Details

Entrepreneurial Place Leadership: Negotiating the Entrepreneurial Landscape
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-029-0

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 10 November 2023

Udeni Salmon and Ann Singleton

The study deploys Anthias' intersectional framework of social spaces and her concept of translocational positionality to explore the barriers to entrepreneurship for refugee

Abstract

Purpose

The study deploys Anthias' intersectional framework of social spaces and her concept of translocational positionality to explore the barriers to entrepreneurship for refugee entrepreneurs in the United Kingdom (UK). In particular, the study aims to assess how migrant identities require a specific form of business support.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 32 semi-structured interviews with 14 refugee entrepreneurs and 18 business support agents were conducted between April and October 2022 and, together with field notes, were combined for thematic analysis in NVivo 12.

Findings

Organisational, representational, intersubjective and experiential barriers combined to create practical and psychological deterrents to entrepreneurship for refugees. However, an explicitly humanistic and de-centred approach to business support was (partially) able to counter such barriers.

Practical implications

Policymakers and business support agencies should consider intersectional characteristics and the importance of a compassionate and individual approach when designing business support programmes for refugee entrepreneurs.

Originality/value

Two intersectional concepts of social spaces and translocational positionality are brought into conversation with each other, creating a novel approach to framing the barriers to entrepreneurship for refugees.

Details

International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-2554

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 October 2017

Miriam Stewart, Denise L. Spitzer, Kaysi E. Kushner, Edward Shizha, Nicole Letourneau, Edward Makwarimba, Cindy-Lee Dennis, Michael Kariwo, Knox Makumbe and Jocelyn Edey

The purpose of this paper is to develop and test an accessible and culturally appropriate social support intervention designed to meet the support needs and preferences identified…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop and test an accessible and culturally appropriate social support intervention designed to meet the support needs and preferences identified by African refugee parents of young children.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was built on the research team’s preceding study assessing social support needs and intervention preferences of Sudanese and Zimbabwean refugee parents of young children. Face-to-face support groups led by peer and professional mentors were conducted bi-weekly over seven months. Qualitative data collection methods were employed through group and individual interviews.

Findings

In total, 85 refugee parents (48 Sudanese, 37 Zimbabwean; 47 male, 38 female) in two Canadian provinces participated in the social support intervention. Results demonstrated that this intervention increased participants’ social support by: providing information, enhancing spousal relationships, and expanding engagement with their ethnic community. This pilot intervention decreased refugee new parents’ loneliness and isolation, enhanced coping, improved their capacity to attain education and employment, and increased their parenting competence.

Practical implications

Peer mentors who were refugee parents of young children were key to facilitating the support intervention and to enhancing confidence of group members to raise their children in Canada. They acted as role models as they had faced similar challenges. Success of this intervention can also be attributed to its flexibility and participant-centered focus.

Originality/value

This is the first reported study to design and test the impacts of support interventions for African refugee parents of young children.

Details

International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, vol. 14 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-9894

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 June 2017

Miriam Stewart, Kaysi Eastlick Kushner, CindyLee Dennis, Michael Kariwo, Nicole Letourneau, Knox Makumbe, Edward Makwarimba and Edward Shizha

The purpose of this paper is to examine support needs of African refugee new parents in Canada, and identifies support preferences that may enhance the mental health of refugee

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine support needs of African refugee new parents in Canada, and identifies support preferences that may enhance the mental health of refugee parents and children.

Design/methodology/approach

In all, 72 refugee new parents from Zimbabwe (n=36) and Sudan (n=36) participated in individual interviews. All had a child aged four months to five years born in Canada. Refugee new parents completed standardized measures on social support resources and support seeking as a coping strategy. Four group interviews (n=30) with refugee new parents were subsequently conducted. In addition, two group interviews (n=30) were held with service providers and policy influencers.

Findings

Separated from their traditional family and cultural supports, refugee new parents reported isolation and loneliness. They lacked support during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum and had limited interactions with people from similar cultural backgrounds. Refugees required support to access services and overcome barriers such as language, complex systems, and limited financial resources. Support preferences included emotional and information support from peers from their cultural community and culturally sensitive service providers.

Research limitations/implications

Psychometric evaluation of the quantitative measures with the two specific populations included in this study had not been conducted, although these measures have been used with ethnically diverse populations by other researchers.

Practical implications

The study findings can inform culturally appropriate health professional practice, program and policy development.

Originality/value

The study bridges gaps in research examining support needs and support intervention preferences of African refugee new parents.

Details

International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, vol. 13 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-9894

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 March 2019

Aki Harima, Julia Freudenberg and Jantje Halberstadt

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize business incubators and their support for entrepreneurial refugees. While the number of initiatives supporting refugees’…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize business incubators and their support for entrepreneurial refugees. While the number of initiatives supporting refugees’ entrepreneurial activities has increased in recent years, we still know little about how they differ from other types of business incubators.

Design/methodology/approach

This case study investigates a business incubator in Hamburg, Germany, targeting enterprising refugees. For this paper, 14 in-depth interviews with program participants and incubation managers were conducted.

Findings

This paper inductively derives five functional domains of refugee business incubators: providing structured entrepreneurial knowledge; alleviating anxiety related to institutional differences; guiding through the process at the incubator and motivating participants; understanding and tapping into social capital in the host country; and providing soft support concerning personal matters. The findings show that business incubators could and possibly should address specific needs of refugees and that there is much room for improvement. This study suggests that the five domains listed above represent key characteristics that distinguish refugee business incubators from traditional business incubators.

Practical implications

This paper offers valuable practical insights for refugee business incubators, which need to consider and develop functional domains listed above. Because these kinds of incubators are a fairly recent phenomenon, there is a general lack of and need for blueprints. The findings of this paper suggest that business incubators could integrate and support entrepreneurial refugees provided that they consider the five functional domains identified here. The findings also provide evidence that entrepreneurship can be a possible means of vocational integration for refugees and one way of institutions and policy-makers in host country seeking to support refugees’ entrepreneurial activities, for example, by developing or subsidizing business incubators targeting refugees.

Originality/value

This paper’s contributions are twofold. First, this paper addresses a gap in the literature on refugee entrepreneurship by providing insights concerning the important role of support institutions. Second, this paper conceptualizes business incubators for enterprising refugees as a distinctive type of business incubators. This paper has, however, some limitations. Because it only considered a relatively small number of refugee entrepreneurs, it is difficult to generalize the findings. The cross-cultural setting of the empirical study, with its potential for linguistic and cultural misunderstandings, may have affected the results.

Details

Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, vol. 14 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6204

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 October 2018

Matthew Fish and Olivia Fakoussa

Pre- and post-immigration trauma and stress make refugees a particularly vulnerable group in terms of mental health and well-being. The purpose of this paper is to describe a…

Abstract

Purpose

Pre- and post-immigration trauma and stress make refugees a particularly vulnerable group in terms of mental health and well-being. The purpose of this paper is to describe a listening project undertaken in Plymouth, UK, which sought the views of 17 service users (n=12) and staff (n=5) from four local support organisations, for people with refugee and asylum seeker status and those with diverse cultural backgrounds. Aims of the project were to expand Western-centric understandings regarding beneficial support and the promotion of good mental health and well-being in this population.

Design/methodology/approach

Responses were subjected to thematic analysis, co-conducted with a service user. Participants were asked about their personal understandings of mental health and well-being and what supports or hinders well-being.

Findings

The findings enabled the development of a model incorporating 10 threads which support and 9 holes that can hinder well-being.

Research limitations/implications

The relatively small numbers of participants compared with the numbers of asylum seekers and refugees in Plymouth may not be fully representative of the general population in Plymouth and the UK.

Originality/value

Despite increasing cultural diversity within the UK population, available mental health services exist mainly as developed from a Western psychological model of mental distress and treatment. This research provides services with a more informed understanding of mental health for asylum seekers and refugees. As such it is of value towards future service design in Plymouth and the UK. Findings also contributed to a successful funding bid to set up a peer-led support project in the city.

Details

International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, vol. 14 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-9894

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 10 December 2020

Sevasti-Melissa Nolas, Charles Watters, Keira Pratt-Boyden and Reima Ana Maglajlic

This review and theoretical analysis paper aims to bring together literatures of place, mobility, refugees and mental health to problematise the ways in which social support is…

Abstract

Purpose

This review and theoretical analysis paper aims to bring together literatures of place, mobility, refugees and mental health to problematise the ways in which social support is practised on the ground and to rethink its possibilities.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper draws on an interdisciplinary understanding of social support that focusses on the social networks and significant and intimate relationships that mitigate negative mental health and well-being outcomes. The authors explore the dialectic relationship between place and mobility in refugee experiences of social support.

Findings

The authors argue that, in an Euro-American context, practices of social support have historically been predicated on the idea of people-in-place. The figure of the refugee challenges the notion of a settled person in need of support and suggests that people are both in place and in motion at the same time. Conversely, attending to refugees’ biographies, lived experiences and everyday lives suggests that places and encounters of social support are varied and go beyond institutional spaces.

Research limitations/implications

The authors explore this dialectic of personhood as both in place and in motion and its implications for the theorisation, research and design of systems of social support for refugees.

Originality/value

This paper surfaces the dialectics of place and mobility for supporting refugee mental health from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Details

International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, vol. 16 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-9894

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 8000