Previous seminars: May 2022, October 2022, March 2023, October 2023 (results from the 2023 October workshop here), March 2024.
Refugee Entrepreneurship Research Group
Despite historical refugee crises, the field of entrepreneurship is still very much in its infancy when it comes to understanding how, why and under which circumstances refugees engage in entrepreneurship. Today, 110 million people have been forcibly displaced worldwide, of which 35 million are refugees. With the difficult conditions that refugees are faced with, many are encouraged to be involved in different types of entrepreneurial activities for their livelihood. Understanding the operating conditions, circumstances, and specific contexts of entrepreneurship among refugees is a key issue in successful integration.
What we do
We are a multidisciplinary research group focusing on Refugee Entrepreneurship. Historically, there is an absence from comprehensive theory on refugee entrepreneurship and just a few research themes have reached the entrepreneurship conversation so far. Our aim is therefore to create new knowledge that will provide better opportunities for the refugee. Some of our research topics are:
- Incentives for entrepreneurship amongst refugees
- How the context – the refugee camp or host country – impact(s) on refugee entrepreneurship
- Nordic countries and refugee entrepreneurship
- Social mobility among refugees
- Residential segregation and labour market outcomes
- Labour market integration
- Refugees and education
- Perceived discrimination of refugees
- Entrepreneurship challenges among refugees
- Precarity, vulnerability and encounters of diversity in refugee entrepreneurship
- Methodological approaches to studying refugee entrepreneurship
- Storytelling and bricolage in refugee entrepreneurship
- Dis- and misinformation in the context of refugee entrepreneurship
- Female refugees and entrepreneurship
Group members
Stefan Lång, Maria Ivanova-Gongne, Jonas Lagerström, Eeva-Liisa Eskola, Astrid Huopalainen, Malin Brännback, Thao Orrensalo, Jose Teixeira Apolinario, Gunilla Widén.
International members: Michael Wynn-Williams, Maria Elo.
Contact information
E-mail: Stefan.Lang@abo.fi
Phone: +358 (0) 400784771