Abstract
This paper examines how human and social capital influences the entrepreneurial activity of migrant entrepreneurs, with special reference to forced migrants due to conflict. The study uses Riinvest Migrant’s Survey data collected at the end of 2008 and beginning of 2009 to estimate the probability of entrepreneurial activity among Kosovan migrants. The findings demonstrate that host networking (foreign spouse and foreign language fluency) exerts a positive effect on entrepreneurial activity of migrants, while co-ethnic networking is found not to be important. We show that migration experience has a positive impact on the probability of entrepreneurship. Exposure to host country (both measured as years in migration and age) increases probability to start a business. Educational qualifications in the country of origin before migration do not have any influence on entrepreneurship, while specific business training in the country of residence has a positive impact. Contributions to scholarship on migrant entrepreneurship and policy approaches to mobilise them are discussed.
Highlights
As a result of globalisation and increasing immigration, there is increased interest in the economic activity of migrants (Ram and Jones 2008; Ivlevs and King 2012; Beckers and Blumberg, 2013; Elo 2016)
The key research question is ‘How do human and social capital resources influence the entrepreneurial activity of migrants, with special reference to migrants who have been forced to migrate?’ Our contribution is to show how forced migrants harness their human and social capital resources in order to launch entrepreneurial ventures
We propose the following hypothesis to examine the role of human capital in migrant entrepreneurship: Hypothesis 1: Migrants with higher level human capital: 2a) education before migration) 2b) participated in any business related training in country of residence (COR); experience are more likely to be engaged in entrepreneurial activity as compared to their counterparts
Summary
As a result of globalisation and increasing immigration, there is increased interest in the economic activity of migrants (Ram and Jones 2008; Ivlevs and King 2012; Beckers and Blumberg, 2013; Elo 2016). Migrant entrepreneurs are able to bridge international boundaries while facing numerous complexities including different business contexts, borders and transnational identities and characteristics (Brinkerhoff 2016), and at the same time are able to utilise their entrepreneurial resources gained through internationalisation processes (Brinkerhoff 2009; Terjesen and Elam 2009). As part of their resource endowment, entrepreneurs can utilise human capital, which refers to the characteristics, skills, competences and education that are individual endowments, as well as social capital, which refers to the nature of social relations and how they can be drawn upon for individual benefit (Williams et al 2017). There is an established literature on economic migrants and their impacts on the country of residence (COR) (Ram et al 2008; Vershinina et al 2011; Barrett and Vershinina 2016); yet, there is a paucity of literature which examines those who are forced to migrate, and the role that human and social capital resources may play in them undertaking entrepreneurial activity
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