Refugees or Immigrants – How Does it Matter for Entrepreneurship? Systematic Review of Refugee Entrepreneurship Literature Inspired by the Immigrant Entrepreneurship Research

Abstract

This literature review answers the research question of how being a refugee or an immigrant affects entrepreneurial experience. It aims to examine the differences between refugees and immigrants in the light of immigrant entrepreneurship literature and emerging refugee entrepreneurship research. The analysis of the selected 41 peer reviewed papers within the framework of the eight dominant theories in immigrant entrepreneurship literature, including the field pertaining to refugees, implies that being a refugee has a rather negative impact on the entrepreneurial experience as compared to being an immigrant. Nonetheless, the literature on refugee entrepreneurship or their general labor market integration is rather scarce in number of applied theories and conducted studies in comparison to the immigrant entrepreneurship area and leaves vast room for future research.