Challenges and Resilience Strategies of Urban Refugee Entrepreneurs

Ayşegül Kayaoğlu, Zeynep Mencutek and Ching Chang
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Zeynep Mencutek: Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies
Ching Chang: National Chengchi University

No 1601, Working Papers from Economic Research Forum

Abstract: Refugee entrepreneurship is key to promoting self-reliance and resilience among refugees. It ensures a smoother transition from humanitarian to development programs, so it is considered mutually beneficial for the refugees, their hosts, and the overall humanitarian-development aid sector. Its success, however, relies on the development of multidimensional resilience strategies since refugee entrepreneurship is a complex phenomenon related to capabilities and structures for integration. Little is known about the resilience strategies of urban refugee entrepreneurs in the face of legal, economic, and sociocultural challenges; therefore, they should be addressed. Studying the case of Syrian refugees in Turkey, we show that urban refugee entrepreneurs are heterogenous and their resilience strategies depend on factors such as the size of their businesses, sectoral dynamics, access to financial markets, trade options, social acceptance in the host society, local economic structure, and costs of production. Our empirical analysis shows that they navigate these challenges by adopting certain strategies according to their capabilities.

Pages: 23
Date: 2022-11-20, Revised 2022-11-20
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ara, nep-ent, nep-mig and nep-ure
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