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Acculturation conditions and orientations of Afghan and Syrian refugee entrepreneurs in Turkey
... Although acculturation explains the change experienced by both groups in contact, in societies such as Türkiye, where it is less focused on in the literature (Henrich et al., 2010), psychology research often focuses on how newcomers or minority members adopt or reject the cultural characteristics of hosts (e.g., Güler & Yildirim, 2022;Kurt et al., 2021;Safak et al., 2024;Şafak-Ayvazoğlu et al., 2021). However, as the theoretical background we mentioned above indicates, the acculturation process is two-sided, and the establishment of harmonious relationships is only possible by including the acculturation expectations of the hosts in the analysis. ...
This study examines the links between ethnic identification, perceived threat, and acculturation expectations of the host members in samples of Turks and Kurds. Using a cross-sectional correlational method, we test whether (1)the members of the advantaged and disadvantaged groups differ in terms of their acculturation orientations; (2)the ingroup identification becomes salient when host members evaluate their relationship with the newcomer differs between them, and (3)members of the advantaged and disadvantaged groups differ in terms of the relationship ethnic and national identification have with the perceived threat from Syrian refugees and their acculturation orientations. Results (N=579) from a series of simple mediation models indicated that perceived outgroup threat mediates the link between ethnic identification and acculturation expectations among Turks for the models including assimilation, segregation, exclusion, and individualism-based acculturation expectation as the outcomes. We found no mediating role of the perceived outgroup threat for Kurds. The mixed-model MANCOVA results show that Kurds had more integration-based expectations than the Turks. Turks had more assimilation and exclusion-based acculturation expectations than Kurds. We discussed the results in the context of the social identity approach.
This study explores the experiences of armed conflict, forced displacement, and integration of refugees displaced from the Anglophone region in southern Cameroon in Nigeria. In this qualitative study, data was collected using semi-structured interviews with 39 in-depth interviews and 4 focus group discussions (FGDs) with refugees who have experienced armed conflict and forced displacement and have been integrated into Nigeria. Data was collected from refugees at the Adagom permanent refugee settlement and in Calabar, in southern Nigeria, using purposive and snowball sampling techniques to identify participants. The data were analysed using thematic analysis methods. The analysis of the data revealed four thematic areas. Details from the thematic area revealed that participants experienced changes in their community, which was once peaceful, into a battle ground of fear and violence, which induced their decision to flee. Participants shared experiences of trauma and violence during conflict, resulting in deep emotional scars. Participants described the extreme measures taken by individuals as they fled the conflict zone into Nigeria. Participants encountered numerous challenges during the resettlement process, including discrimination, harassment, and social exclusion within their new communities. These findings highlight the multifaceted difficulties faced by Anglophone Cameroonian refugees during conflict and integration in Nigeria, thus emphasizing the significance of thorough policy guidelines to protect refugees in conflict zones while also facilitating their integration processes across borders.
Although Turkey hosts the largest population of refugees globally, we know little about their labor-market outcomes at the national level. This study uses the 2018 round of the Turkey Demographic and Health Survey, which includes a representative sample of Syrian refugees for the first time, to examine refugee labor-market integration. The findings show a much smaller native–refugee gap in men’s employment in Turkey (favoring natives) than that reported for most developed countries. Moreover, the employment rate for refugee men peaks quite early, one year after arrival, and remains at the same level. By contrast, the employment rate for refugee women is initially lower and does not change much over time. Once demographic and educational differences are accounted for, the native–refugee gap in men’s (women’s) paid employment falls to 4.7 (4.0) percentage points (pp). These small gaps conceal the fact that formal-employment rates are much lower among refugees. Even when covariate differences are accounted for, the formal-employment rate for refugee men is 58 pp lower than the rate for native men. In addition, the smallest native–refugee employment gaps are in manufacturing for men and agriculture for women. The gap is also much smaller in wage employment than in self-employment or unpaid family work. Finally, significant heterogeneity exists across refugee groups. The native–refugee employment gap is wider for older and more-educated groups. Once covariates are accounted for, the gap in men’s employment vanishes for refugees whose mother tongue is Turkish but persists for refugees whose mother tongue is Arabic or Kurdish.
Purpose
Governments can influence entrepreneurial growth through public policy. This paper aims to present critical aspects of entrepreneurship policy design for Syrian refugees in Turkey and evaluate if current policies are effective for Syrian refugees in Istanbul.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopts an explorative phenomenological approach, contextualized within the entrepreneurial behavior literature. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews with fifteen Syrian entrepreneurs residing in Istanbul.
Findings
The results show that Syrian refugees were “pushed” to start new companies. Moreover, the findings suggest that Syrian entrepreneurs could exploit better business opportunities such as targeting international markets or finding competent partners.
Research limitations/implications
The article offers several practical and social contributions by highlighting how the entrepreneurial behavior of Syrian refugees is driven by their migration or business experiences.
Practical implications
Policymakers in Turkey need to acknowledge how their entrepreneurial policies regarding innovation and internationalization affect the business success rate among Syrian refugees. In this regard, the Turkish government should adopt new measures that provide Syrian refugees more business flexibility. These policies may include easy access to the Turkish financial system or fewer regulations to obtain work permits. This will encourage refugees to join the formal economy and contribute to the Turkish labor market.
Originality/value
This article adds to the expanding body of knowledge on refugee entrepreneurship by emphasizing the link between refugees' personal experiences and starting new ventures. It also highlights how government policy can be strategically utilized to increase entrepreneurship among Syrian refugees in Turkey.
This paper develops and estimates a dynamic model where individuals differ in ability and location preference to evaluate the mechanisms that affect the evolution of immigrants’ careers in conjunction with their re-migration plans. Our analysis highlights a novel form of selective return migration where those who plan to stay longer invest more into skill acquisition, with important implications for the assessment of immigrants’ career paths and the estimation of their earnings profiles. Our study also explains the willingness of immigrants to accept jobs at wages that seem unacceptable to natives. Finally, our model provides important insight for the design of migration policies, showing that policies which initially restrict residence or condition residence on achievement shape not only immigrants’ career profiles through their impact on human capital investment but also determine the selection of arrivals and leavers.
The paper examines several refugee experiences in Mexico and presents their reasons for leaving their home countries. A gap in research is identifying the entrepreneurial process experienced by refugee entrepreneurs. We use the case study of 10 Latin American refugees in Mexico to propose a conceptual framework that describes the entrepreneurial process of refugee entrepreneurs. We have found that this process begins with the abandonment of the country of origin, followed by the traumatic experiences that caused flight and the difficulties they face in the pilgrimage to the host country. These events help shape the entrepreneurial intention of the refugees.
This paper presents a qualitative, systematic literature review of refugee entrepreneurship research that has been published in academic outlets, up to 2018. We synthesize the contributions to the field, providing a state of the art, so as to elucidate our current understandings of the phenomenon and highlight gaps that will help enhance our future approaches and knowledge. The empirical analysis reveals a fast emerging, eclectic field, with research from a wide range of disciplines, produced by the 'academic center', largely in the 'academic periphery'. Publication numbers have been on the rise, especially in the last ten years, yet, there is very little mutual acknowledgement and discussions arising between researchers, as revealed by a bibliometric analysis. A content analysis shows three main waves of publications based on countries of origin, countries of residence, and migration timeframes. The vast majority of publications take on an exploratory approach to research, with diverse theoretical framings from an array of disciplines, and the thematic clusters reveal how researchers are attempting to tease out the distinctiveness of refugee entrepreneurs from other, closely related entrepreneurship groups.
In this article, we present a tool and a method for measuring the psychological and cultural distance between societies and creating a distance scale with any population as the point of comparison. Because psychological data are dominated by samples drawn from Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) nations, and overwhelmingly, the United States, we focused on distance from the United States. We also present distance from China, the country with the largest population and second largest economy, which is a common cultural comparison. We applied the fixation index ( F ST ), a meaningful statistic in evolutionary theory, to the World Values Survey of cultural beliefs and behaviors. As the extreme WEIRDness of the literature begins to dissolve, our tool will become more useful for designing, planning, and justifying a wide range of comparative psychological projects. Our code and accompanying online application allow for comparisons between any two countries. Analyses of regional diversity reveal the relative homogeneity of the United States. Cultural distance predicts various psychological outcomes.
Several European countries have introduced integration programs that oblige immigrants to adopt the host culture. While research has shown that members of national majority groups consider host culture adoption by immigrants as desirable, the effect of making host culture adoption mandatory on attitudes toward immigrants has so far not been investigated. We argue that perceiving host culture adoption as mandatory yields less positive evaluation of immigrants than voluntary adoption. Moreover, we contend that this effect is explained by a lower perception of identification with the host nation by immigrants in the former case than in the latter. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a first study in France ('N' = 63) and a second preregistered study in Switzerland ('N' = 110). In both studies, participants received information about an immigrant who adopted the host culture either voluntarily or as part of a mandatory integration program. As expected, granting civic rights to the immigrant is perceived as more legitimate in the voluntary adoption condition than in the mandatory adoption condition, and this effect was mediated by perception of host nation identification. These results highlight the role of the situational context of acculturation practices in social judgments about immigrants. Implications for mandatory integration policies are discussed.
The field of psychology prides itself on being a data-driven science. In 2008, however, Arnett brought to light a major weakness in the evidence on which models, measures, and theories in psychology rest. He demonstrated that the most prominent journals in six subdisciplines of psychology focused almost exclusively (over 70% of samples and authors) on a cultural context, the United States, shared by only 5% of the world's population. How can psychologists trust that these models and results generalize to all humans, if the evidence comes from a small and unrepresentative portion of the global population? Arnett's analysis, cited over 1,300 times since its publication, appears to have galvanized researchers to think more globally. Social scientists from the United States have increasingly sought ways to collaborate with colleagues abroad. Ten years later, an analysis of the same 6 journals for the period of 2014 to 2018 indicates that the authors and samples are now on average a little over 60% American based. The change is mainly due to an increase in authorship and samples from other English-speaking and Western European countries. Thus, it might be said that 11% of the world's population is now represented in these top psychology journals, but that 89% of the world's population continues to be neglected. Majority world authors and samples (4-5%) are still sorely lacking from the evidence base. Psychology still has a long way to go to become a science truly representative of human beings. Several specific recommendations are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
This article provides an overview of future directions for research related to refugee entrepreneurship. It puts forward key concepts, explores the relations within the current broader literature on migration and entrepreneurship, and identifies several promising clusters of questions. We also introduce five papers in a special section of this issue, which offer nuanced findings and cues for further research.
This article focuses on the refugees’ labor market integration in the immediate host countries. Drawing from the experience of Syrian refugees in Jordan, it describes how the integration in labor market depends on the alignment of four perspectives: (1) host state perspective, materialized through legal regulations about refugee employment; (2) refugee perspective that refers to refugees’ access to labor market and challenges they face; (3) host community perspective that implies to the recognition, approval, or reactions of host communities to the refugee employment; and (4) donor perspective that appears with the intervention of international actors through development aid or general support to refugees’ working rights. To explore these diverging perspectives and their implications about the labor market integration of Syrian refugees in Jordan, the data is gathered from ethnographic policy analysis and stakeholder interviews in urban areas and camps. We argue that the refugees’ legal right to work is one of the most contentious policy issues not only for Jordanian state but also for its relations with Jordanian citizens, refugees, and donors. From the perspective of donors, ensuring Syrians’ legal access to labor market in the immediate host countries, like Jordan, is a policy tool for keeping refugees in the origin region. At the host community level, the issue appears as a source of dilemma; because refugee employment is a critical domain for refugees’ self-reliance and local integration on the one hand, it is perceived as the source of competition for already scarce job opportunities on the other hand. For refugees themselves, an access to labor market and getting support are ways of gaining sustainable livelihood opportunities, self-reliance, and dignity. However, this access is marked by severe conditions of exploitation, vulnerability, and discrimination in working places as well as the anti-refugee rhetoric of local host communities. Programming in refugee employment necessitates taking all these four perspectives into account.
The current surge in forced migration to Europe is probably the largest and most complex since the Second World War. As population aging accelerates and fertility falls below replacement level, immigration may be seen as a key component of human capital to address labor and skill shortages. Receiving countries are, however, hesitant about the contribution that forced migrants can make to the local economy. Coupled with increasing pressure on welfare services, they are associated with increased job competition and crime. Underutilization of immigrants’ skills is, however, a waste of resources that countries can scarcely afford. Understanding the labor market integration process of forced migrants is thus critical to develop policies that unleash their full skills potential and ultimately foster local economic productivity. While prior studies have examined the employment and salary outcomes of these immigrants at a particular point in time post-migration, they have failed to capture the temporal dynamics and complexity of this process. Drawing on administrative data from Sweden, we examine the occupational pathways of forced migrants using sequence analysis from their arrival in 1991 through to 2013. Findings reveal polarized pathways of long-term labor market integration with over one-third of refugees experiencing a successful labor market integration pathway and an equally large share facing a less fruitful employment outcomes. Our findings suggest education provision is key to promote a more successful integration into the local labor market by reducing barriers of cultural proximity and increasing the occurrence of entrepreneurship activity.
Acculturation refers to the adaptive processes that are necessary for living in a multicultural world. Religious acculturation refers to the ways in which religious‐minority adolescents negotiate their religious identity, beliefs, and practices as they live in a multicultural context that includes different religious or secular groups. Studies on religious identity development, on the one hand, and its link to multiple cultural allegiances, on the other, highlight the central role that religiosity plays in the acculturation experiences and relationships of minority adolescents with an immigrant background. Empirical evidence suggests that religious identity is transmitted and reinforced in immigrant families through processes similar to those of ethnic identity; there is little support for the common assumption that religiosity per se precludes identification and integration of minority adolescents with mainstream cultures and groups. Acculturation framework contextualizes minority adolescents' religiosity and its development by identifying social–cultural influences and intergroup processes that affect the continuity, reaffirmation, and decline in religiosity over generations and across situations in which acculturation occurs.
This paper explores differences in the likelihood of engaging in self-employment among migrants who moved for different reasons to the UK. The results suggest that, conditional on being in employment, those who initially migrated for asylum reasons are six percentage points more likely to engage in self-employment than the UK-born, while those who migrated for work reasons are not significantly different from UK-born workers in this regard. We also find that mediating factors, such as the presence of networks and years since migration, relate differently to the likelihood of self-employment for each group of migrants. Finally, there are also differences when looking at the number of persons employed by the self-employed and the skill level associated with the activity of self-employment. Those who migrated for asylum are not significantly different from the UK-born in their likelihood of employing someone else, while those who migrated for work are two percentage points less likely to employ others relative to the UK-born.
Participating in the labour market is vital to newcomers’ successful integration in the host country. Although most newcomers participate through wage earning, some start their own businesses. Refugee entrepreneurship has substantial benefits not only for these business owners but also for their host communities; however, newcomers aspiring to begin their own businesses face several obstacles.
Through a systematic literature review and selected global case studies, this paper identifies some of these challenges with respect to market opportunities, access to entrepreneurship, human capital, social networks and the social environment in the context of newcomer entrepreneurship.
While the lack of research on newcomer entrepreneurship and the vast differences among newcomer scenarios hinder the development of standard solutions, this paper aims to provide a foundation on which further investigation, strategic planning and efforts to implement solutions could be based. Active, informed and engaged leadership is needed to champion the transition of the newcomer image from a passive and vulnerable recipient to an empowered contributor.
This report analyses the challenges of implementing a ´protection in the region´ agenda in Lebanon, a country that hosts the highest number of refugees per capita in the world, and which has been the recipient of one of the largest per capita aid and support packages since 2016. Our main finding is that EU diplomatic efforts and financial commitments to date have made very limited progress in ensuring protection for Syrian refugees in the country or improving their dismal socio-economic position. On the contrary, the main socio-economic indicators for Syrian refugees have remained very poor for the past three years, and the refugees’ continued presence in the country is increasingly questioned by parts of Lebanon’s political establishment.
This report traces the reasons why donor efforts have had such limited success: restrictions created by Lebanese and European political narratives of displacement; the limitations imposed by Lebanon’s clientilistic economy; and the challenges of combining protection in the region with an economic reform agenda. Many donors have opted for predominantly technical approaches, based on cooperation with line ministries and state institutions. In our view, these approaches pay insufficient heed to the complex web of sectarian and personal interests that fuel Lebanese policy-making, with the result that limited progress is achieved for refugees.
The present research investigated positive and negative behavioural intentions towards Syrian refugees in Turkey. The behavioural intentions were examined in relation to national identification, perception of threat, and humanitarian concerns. A questionnaire was conducted among Turkish participants (n = 605) and the results showed that respondents made a distinction between negative and positive behavioural intentions towards Syrian refugees. Further, higher national identification was associated with more negative and less positive behavioural intentions, and perception of threat was responsible for these associations. In addition, humanitarian concern was associated with more positive behavioural intentions and less negative ones. Additionally, stronger humanitarian concern weakened the association between threat perceptions and negative behavioural intentions but also strengthened the association between higher threat and lower positive behavioural intentions.
In recent years, the refugee crisis has emerged as a major global challenge with social, economic, and political implications. Figures indicate that there are currently over 22 million refugees around the world. While refugees are usually regarded as a burden for their host countries, their entrepreneurial ventures might offer significant contributions to local economies. Although refugee entrepreneurship has become significantly evident in several economies, theoretical and empirical research tackling this issue is still scant. This study aims to explore the characteristics of and challenges faced by refugee tourism and hospitality entrepreneurs in Istanbul, Turkey. Drawing on qualitative data collected through 20 semi-structured interviews with refugee tourism and hospitality entrepreneurs, the findings suggest that refugee entrepreneurs were challenged by four key issues; legislative and administrative, financial, socio-cultural and market-related obstacles. The study also offers insights into characteristics of refugee tourism and hospitality entrepreneurs and their integration into their host communities.
Research on the consequences of making attributions to prejudice for the psychological functioning of minority groups is still scarce and rather inconsistent. In this study we set out to examine the consequences of making attributions to prejudice in response to social rejection for social wellbeing among immigrants in Spain. We tested this relationship and the mediating effects with representative samples of 1250 foreignborn immigrants who had lived for at least six months in the Basque Country, having been born in Bolivia, Colombia, Morocco, Romania, or Sub-Saharan African countries. The sample was drawn from public records and obtained through a probability sampling procedure by ethnicity with stratification by age and sex. We conducted mediation analyses using structural equation modeling (SEM) to verify whether the perceived ethnic discrimination effect on the five dimensions of social wellbeing was partially or completely explained by the attributions to prejudice. Our results indeed partially revealed that making attributions to prejudice protect social wellbeing form negative consequences of personal discrimination only in the dimension of social contribution. In turn, attributions to prejudice explained the negative relationship between perceived discrimination, and social acceptance and social actualization: that is, those dimensions of social wellbeing that reflect social trust. We discuss the results integrating social identity, social stigma, and positive psychology framework, through the inclusion of societal aspects of wellbeing for measuring immigrants' adaptation in the host society.
In this paper, we examine the existence and development of the ‘refugee gap’: the difference in labour market participation rates between refugees and other types of migrants. Using the cumulative disadvantage hypothesis, we studied whether the ‘refugee entry effect’ scars refugees for their working careers in the Netherlands. To do so, we used register data (Social Statistical Database), containing information on all refugees who received refugee status in the Netherlands between 1995 and 1999 (N = 33,030). We compared their labour market participation over the 2000–2011 period with that of labour and family migrants in the same cohort (N = 78,298). We conclude that the ‘refugee gap’ exists at the start of refugees working career in the Netherlands and that it diminishes over time.
After the start of the Syrian Crisis in 2011, Turkish authorities coined the term ‘guest’ for Syrian refugees. However, in a short span of time, it became apparent that this ‘visit’ of Syrians and refugee influx would not end anytime soon. This situation brings the employment problem into the question, considering that Turkey hosts nearly 3 million Syrian refugees. Even though Syrians already take part in the workforce, they are largely employed illegally and often paid very low wages.
In a major shift of policy, Turkey has started to offer Syrian refugees work permits. Through the latest regulation, registered Syrian refugees who have been in Turkey for at least six months are allowed to apply for work permits in the province where they first registered. This study aims to examine the current impact of Syrian refugees on the Turkish labour market at the regional level, and to predict possible changes in the wages of the local population and local unemployment levels after the Turkish government grants Syrians the right to work.
This paper assesses the employment and earnings trajectories of refugee and family reunion category immigrants in Canada and Sweden using two national level sources of data. The Canadian Immigration Database (IMDB) is a file that links the intake record of post 1979 immigrants with annual taxation records. The 2007 Swedish Register Data includes information on all legal permanent residents. Using standard regression methods we compare labour force outcomes of age-sex-schooling-place of birth cohorts looking specifically at non-economic (family reunion and refugee intake) immigrants from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and the former Yugoslavia. We find that the employment and earning trajectories of the selected non-economic migrant groups are quite similar in the two host countries, although earnings are higher in Canada than in Sweden.
The political turmoil, civil war, economic crisis, and breakdown of the political systems in the Middle East and
many African countries led to the global refugee crisis in 2015. Since then, policymakers and academics have
recognized the entrepreneurial potential of refugees. Compared to migrants, due to forced displacement, refugees
face significant adversities, such as psychological trauma and substantial institutional barriers. Consequently,
refugee entrepreneurs need to develop and maintain a high degree of resilience to pursue an entrepreneurial path
despite adversities. However, previous studies have treated resilience as a mere personal trait of refugees,
neglecting its multi-layered, dynamic aspect. Against this background, this study examines how refugee entrepreneurs’ resilience emerges and develops, and it analyzes the factors that influence the maintenance of their
resilience. Based on 52 interviews with refugee entrepreneurs in Germany, this study finds that the fragile,
unstable nature of refugees’ resilience depends on various factors at the individual, relational, and institutional
levels during venture development. Based on the findings, we theorize the dynamic process view of refugee
entrepreneurs’ resilience.
This article investigates the medium to long-term effects on refugee labour market outcomes of the temporary employment bans being imposed on asylum seekers in many countries. Using a newly collected dataset on employment restrictions together with individual data for refugees entering European countries between 1985 and 2012, our empirical strategy exploits the geographical and temporal variation in employment bans generated by their staggered introduction and removal coupled with frequent changes at the intensive margin. We find that exposure to a ban at arrival reduces refugee employment probability in post-ban years by 15%, an impact driven primarily by lower labour market participation. These effects are not mechanical, increase non-linearly in ban length and last up to 10 years post arrival. The detrimental effects of employment bans are concentrated among less educated refugees, translate into lower occupational quality, and seem not to be driven by selective migration. Our causal estimates are robust to several identification tests accounting for the potential endogeneity of employment ban policies, including placebo analysis of non-refugee migrants and an instrumental variable strategy. We estimate a EUR 37.6 billion output loss from the bans imposed on asylum seekers who arrived in Europe during the so-called 2015 refugee crisis.
This article explores the intersections between economic resources of refugees and integration. It measures processes of adaptation of Syrians by focusing on the legal-political and socio-economic dimensions of integration. The focus of my analysis of the situations of Syrian refugees in Turkey is on class and related to financial resources that help Syrians to reach a kind of stability and security to those who lack rights. The key theoretical undertaking of this article is an attempt to develop the concept of ‘class-based integration’. The data consists of 120 semi-structured interviews conducted with Syrian refugees in Istanbul, Ankara and Gaziantep. I argue that Syrian refugees in Turkey go through ‘class-based integration’, which is in favour of refugees who do investments and who are skilled and leaves out refugees who are unskilled and do not have economic resources to invest in the receiving country from the integration processes. The article also shows that having economic resources could also support the construction of social bridges with members of the receiving society and overcoming the legal barriers to integration.
This article explores the intersections between economic resources of refugees and integration. It measures processes of adaptation of Syrians by focusing on the legal-political and socio-economic dimensions of integration. The focus of my analysis of the situations of Syrian refugees in Turkey is on class and related to financial resources that help Syrians to reach a kind of stability and security to those who lack rights. The key theoretical undertaking of this article is an attempt to develop the concept of ‘class-based integration’. The data consists of 120 semi-structured interviews conducted with Syrian refugees in Istanbul, Ankara and Gaziantep. I argue that Syrian refugees in Turkey go through ‘class-based integration’, which is in favour of refugees who do investments and who are skilled and leaves out refugees who are unskilled and do not have economic resources to invest in the receiving country from the integration processes. The article also shows that having economic resources could also support the construction of social bridges with members of the receiving society and overcoming the legal barriers to integration.
We provide an overview of the integration of refugees into the labor markets of a number of high-income countries. Discussing the ways in which refugees and economic migrants are differently selected and so might be expected to perform differently in a host country’s labor market, we examine employment and wages for these groups over time after arrival. There is significant heterogeneity between host countries, but in general, refugees experience persistently worse outcomes than other migrants. While the gaps between the groups can be seen to decrease on a timescale of a decade or two, this is more pronounced in employment rates than it is in wages. We also discuss how refugees are distinct in terms of other factors affecting integration, including health, language skills, and social networks. We provide a discussion of insights for public policy in receiving countries, concluding that supporting refugees in early labor market attachment is crucial.
Refugee entrepreneurship has emerged as an economic activity that can potentially help refugees during their settlement and integration processes in the host countries. Only recently have refugee entrepreneurs received some attention in the academic debates. However, despite valuable research endeavors, empirical inquiry addressing the refugee entrepreneurship process remains limited. Specifically, the role of entrepreneurship in facilitating the integration process of refugees is still understudied. The present study draws on qualitative data collected through 29 semi-structured interviews with Syrian refugees venturing in the hospitality industry in Turkey. Using the RQDA package for qualitative data analysis, the findings reveal that refugees' motivations to venture cover a wide range of push and pull factors including survivability, desire for independence, and availability of resources. The findings also confirm that entrepreneurial activities help refugees integrate with the socioeconomic fabric of the host country. The study also identified several factors facilitating and derailing refugee entrepreneurs' integration process. Implications and directions for future research are discussed. ARTICLE HISTORY
This article examines the current situations of refugee microenterprises in selected refugee camps in Turkey. A quantitative method is employed. Findings show that approximately 25% of respondents have managed to start their businesses in refugee camps. Respondents indicate that funding sources are mostly from savings or sponsorship from relatives. More than half of the respondents had entrepreneurship experience. Over 80% of respondents showed a willingness to participate in microentrepreneurship. Findings on challenges conform to the traditional problems of starting a microenterprise for refugees. The results of this study indicate the enormous potential of refugees and their willingness to engage in entrepreneurship activities.
This paper aims to contextualise the entrepreneurial identity of Syrian refugees living outside refugee camps in Jordan. The research adopts a social lens to consider the situation Syrians find themselves in by drawing on the work of Bourdieu. A qualitative design is applied to explore the different experiences and perceptions that pervade refugee stories and the work of refugee aid agencies. By contextualising entrepreneurial identity in the Jordanian context, the paper reveals how a destabilized refugee habitus based on an embodied disposition of survivability is emerging. The paper makes an empirical and conceptual contribution by highlighting how the entrepreneurial activities of Syrian refugees are driven by their experiences of the harsh social conditions they find themselves in.
We compare the labour market outcomes of recent refugees in the 2005–2007 period with those of other migrants in the UK. We compare refugees with a full sample of migrants and with a sample of recent migrants. Controlling for relevant characteristics, we find that 8 and 15 months after the grant of protection, refugees have significantly worse outcomes than other migrants, including a lower likelihood of being in employment and higher likelihood of unemployment (i.e. not currently employed, but looking for work). However, 21 months after the grant of protection, the labour market outcomes of recent refugees are not statistically different from those of recent migrants, and the difference with those in the full sample of migrants becomes smaller. Results also show that female refugees are at a substantial economic disadvantage compared with male refugees and other female migrants. Copyright
The study investigated underemployment among a sample of Russian-speaking refugee adults in the U.S. resettled in two communities that differ in ethnic density. Community context, acculturation, and their interaction related to underemployment. Descriptively, residents of the dense ethnic community had higher Russian and lower American acculturation, greater social integration into co-ethnic networks, lower perceived support from American friends, were more likely to have fellow Russians help them find a job, and less likely to find the job independently. Predictively, living in the dense community and lower levels of American acculturation positively associated with underemployment, while Russian acculturation was unrelated to underemployment. In addition, significant interactions suggested that American acculturation was beneficial for reducing underemployment in the dispersed community but was associated with increased underemployment in the dense community, while greater Russian acculturation was associated with increased underemployment in the dispersed community only. The present study demonstrated context specificity in the relationship between acculturation and underemployment and reaffirmed the value of an ecological approach to conceptualizing acculturative experiences and their relationships to adaptation outcomes.
Recent efforts to expand the theoretical framework of acculturation have drawn attention to a variety of pre-migration and reception contexts that affect how immigrants engage with the culture of their country of destination. Building on John W. Berry’s seminal work, this article contributes to the development of acculturation theory by delineating the previously under-explored context of inter-cultural hierarchy. Employing a critical theory stance, the paper argues that immigrants’ response to western cultural dominance and the rise of neoliberal imperatives can influence, along with the above mentioned contexts, their acculturative strategies. The paper proposes distinctions between types of assimilation, integration and separation strategies that have the potential to capture immigrant’s risk of long-term psychosocial maladjustment in the country of destination.
Organizational Identity presents the classic works on organizational identity alongside more current thinking on the issues. Ranging from theoretical contributions to empirical studies, the readings in this volume address the key issues of organizational identity, and show how these issues have developed through contributions from such diverse fields of study as sociology, psychology, management studies and cultural studies. The readings examine questions such as how organizations understand who they are, why organizations develop a sense of identity and belonging where the boundaries of identity lie and the implications of postmodern and critical theories' challenges to the concept of identity as deeply-rooted and authentic. Includes work by: Stuart Albert, Mats Alvesson, Blake E. Ashforth, Marilynn B. Brewer, George Cheney, Lars Thoger Christensen, C.H. Cooley, Kevin G. Corley, Barbara Czarniawska, Janet M. Dukerich, Jane E. Dutton, Kimberly D. Elsbach, Wendi Gardner, Linda E. Ginzela, Dennis A. Gioia, E. Goffman, Karen Golden-Biddle, Mary Jo Hatch, Roderick M. Kramer, Fred Rael, G.H. Mead, Michael G. Pratt, Anat Rafaeli, Hayagreeva Rao, Majken Schultz, Howard S. Schwartz, Robert I. Sutton, Henri Taijfel, John Turner, David A. Wherren, and Hugh Willmott. Intended to provide easy access to this material for students of organizational identity, it will also be of interest more broadly to students of business, sociology and psychology.
Cross-cultural psychology has demonstrated important links between cultural context and individual behavioural development. Given this relationship, cross-cultural research has increasingly investigated what happens to individuals who have developed in one cultural context when they attempt to re-establish their lives in another one. The long-term psychological consequences of this process of acculturation are highly variable, depending on social and personal variables that reside in the society of origin, the society of settlement, and phenomena that both exist prior to, and arise during, the course of acculturation. This article outlines a conceptual framework within which acculturation and adaptation can be investigated, and then presents some general findings and conclusions based on a sample of empirical studies.
This article assesses the economic role of refugee settlers in Australia. Refugee‐humanitarian labour force participation rates are lower than for other migrant groups or the Australia‐born. However, their labour market performance converges toward that of the Australia‐born over time. Moreover, the second generation performs at a higher level. There are a number of significant impediments to participation including language, education, structural disadvantage and discrimination. Indeed, there is evidence of a significant refugee gap which can only be explained by discrimination. It is shown that refugees represent a significant stock of human capital that is not being fully realized. They suffer more than other groups through non‐recognition and there is substantial “brain waste” with negative results for the economy and the migrants themselves. Finally, it is shown that refugee‐humanitarian settlers show greater propensity to form their own business than other migrants and that risk‐taking, entrepreneurialism and an ability to identify and take advantage of opportunities is a key characteristic of the group.
Policy Implications
The international food security agenda needs to consider the growing challenge of feeding rapidly growing cities with large migrant populations
The reality of internal and international migration should be mainstreamed into the food security agendas of international organizations and states
Food security and insecurity should be configured into the global debate on migration and development
International, regional and municipal policies need to pay particular attention to the food insecurity of migrant populations in the cities of the South.
When approaching religion from a cross-cultural psychological perspective, one faces questions regarding the universals and the specifics of religions across cultural contexts. On the basis of previous theorization and research, the author proposes a model that posits four basic dimensions of religion and individual religiosity that are partially distinct although interconnected: believing, bonding, behaving, and belonging. These dimensions are presumably universally present across religions and cultural contexts and delimitate religion from other similar constructs. They reflect distinct psychological processes (cognitive, emotional, moral, and social), respective goals, conversion motives, types of self-transcendence, and mechanisms explaining the religion-health links. However, across cultural and religious groups, these dimensions may differ in content, salience, and ways in which they are interconnected or emphasized, leading to various forms of religiosity, including functional and dysfunctional ones. Within each dimension, there is additional universality (in structure) and cultural variability (in salience) regarding the way religious cognitions, emotions, morality, and identity are processed. This Big Four religious dimensions model may be a powerful tool for studying universals and cultural specifics of the psychological dimensions of religion.
A prevalent concern with the integration of Turkish minorities is that large cultural differences hinder integration. Many majority members doubt that Turkish minority members can combine host culture adoption and heritage culture maintenance, although research has shown that most Turkish minority members experience no conflict between these orientations. The present study investigates experimentally whether majority group members perceive Turkish minorities’ host culture adoption and heritage culture maintenance as conflicting orientations. Four hundred and seven Flemish majority members received a vignette that contained information on Turkish minority members’ orientation either towards heritage culture maintenance or towards host culture adoption. Results revealed that Flemish majority members perceive host culture adoption and heritage culture maintenance as conflicting orientations. Manipulating either maintenance or adoption affected Flemish majority members’ perceptions of Turkish minorities’ maintenance and adoption but in opposite directions. These results clarify why many majority group members have doubts concerning the integration of Turkish minorities.
The study examined the role of work-specific group-level control beliefs in explaining the negative impact of unemployment and perceived discrimination in working life on psychological well-being and self-rated general health among immigrants. A nation-wide probability sample consisted of 1783 immigrants from the former Soviet Union, Russia and Estonia living in Finland. Domain-specific (work environment) perceived discrimination and group-level control beliefs were assessed. The group-level control beliefs reflected beliefs about the immigrants’ general ability to control their employment opportunities. The results revealed that perceived discrimination predicts negatively, whereas work-specific group-level control beliefs predict positively psychological well-being and self-rated general health among the immigrants studied. The moderating role of group-level control beliefs appeared in a three-way interaction with employment status and perceived discrimination. At particular risk for psychological symptomatology and lowered health status as a result of perceived discrimination were those immigrants who were personally unemployed but still believed in the efficacy of immigrants’ own skills and effort in acquiring employment. It is concluded that it is necessary to separately assess controllability appraisal on the one hand and intra-group variation in disadvantage on the other in order to better understand the relationship between perceived discrimination and well-being. The long-term consequences of unemployment, group-level control beliefs and perceived discrimination for the well-being of immigrants are discussed.
In a field study in East Germany, predictions by Social Identity Theory concerning relations among socio-structural characteristics of intergroup relations (stability, legitimacy, permeability) and identity management strategies (e.g. social competition) were examined. In general, East Germans were expected to consider their status position as inferior compared to West Germans. Moreover, depending on whether they regard such a status difference as legitimate or illegitimate, as stable or unstable, and whether they perceive group boundaries as permeable or impermeable, East German participants should differ with respect to identity management strategies such as change of status relations, change of categorization, change of comparison dimension, change of comparison object and change of group membership. Five hundred and seventeen participants from different regions of East Germany completed a questionnaire on various aspects of life satisfaction. A path model including stability, legitimacy and permeability as predictors, ingroup identification as mediator and identity management strategies as criteria was tested. Results are mainly in line with assumptions on main effects derived from Social Identity Theory. However, some extensions and clarifications with respect to assimilation situations seem to be adequate. In addition, results show that ingroup identification can be regarded as a powerful mediator between perceived intergroup relations and identity management strategies. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.