From the liability to the advantage of refugeeness

C. Annique Un (), Chhomran Ou () and Silvy Un Lafayette ()
Additional contact information
C. Annique Un: Northeastern University
Chhomran Ou: John Marshall High School
Silvy Un Lafayette: St. Louis Park Public Schools

Journal of International Business Policy, 2022, vol. 5, issue 4, No 7, 530-561

Abstract: Abstract We analyze how refugees can contribute to resettlement countries by becoming innovative employees. Refugees are individuals forced to migrate to another country in search of safety, in a hurry, and with few resources. As a result, they suffer from destitution and discrimination in the resettlement country, which we refer to as their “liability of refugeeness.” However, building on insights from case studies, we argue and explain how their liability of refugeeness may become an advantage of refugeeness that enables them to become innovative employees through a human capital upgrading process. Specifically, we first propose that refugees upgrade their human capital via three psychological drivers: courage, perseverance, and resilience. We then suggest that these three drivers are facilitated by the interaction between the support and mentoring received in the early years of resettlement when the liability of refugeeness is most pronounced. This results in four types of refugees with varying success in their human capital upgrading: supported-and-mentored, mentored, supported, and not-supported-and-not-mentored. Finally, we argue that combining their upgraded human capital with the frugal mindset developed from their experiences as refugees helps them to become innovative employees, thus turning the liability of refugeeness into an advantage of refugeeness.

Keywords: liability of refugeeness; advantage of refugeeness; immigrants; knowledge-based view; human capital; innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s42214-021-00126-5 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:joibpo:v:5:y:2022:i:4:d:10.1057_s42214-021-00126-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.palgrave.com/gp/journal/42214

DOI: 10.1057/s42214-021-00126-5

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of International Business Policy is currently edited by Sarianna Lundan, Ari Van Assche and Anne Hoekman

More articles in Journal of International Business Policy from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().