Social and Psychological Capital for the Start-Up of Social Enterprises With a Migratory Background.

Camilla Modesti,Giampaolo Nicolais,Alessandra Talamo,Annamaria Recupero

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01177

Camilla Modesti, Giampaolo Nicolais + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01177

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Abstract

The highest number of forcibly displaced people has been currently recorded due to war, poverty, and climate change. Recently, a process that recognizes refugees as reliable interlocutors for the improvement of reception policies has started. Refugees are therefore encouraged to start up social enterprises aimed at fostering newcomers’ social integration to participate to such a phenomenon. Positive Psychology, with its focus on human strengths, allows to identify the resources that pushed refugees to turn the difficulties they faced during the journey and the resettlement process into resources for themselves and for the resettlement community. The following paper explores in particular the interplay between social and psychological capital that is at the base of a similar social entrepreneurship project through a case study. A qualitative research has been carried out within a social enterprise with a migratory background to analyze the internal and relational resources that brought founders to start up the venture. Results show that while social and psychological capital were independently activated to start from scratch in the resettlement community, they occurred in interrelation in a subsequent phase when participants transformed their direct experiences related to migration into the human capital of their enterprise.

Highlights

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there are 70.8 million forcibly displaced people worldwide: 41.3 million of them are internally displaced, 25.9 million are refugees, and 3.5 million are asylum-seekers
Evidence of such a process are the constitution of the Global Refugee Forum within the Global Compact on Refugees lead by UNHCR1 and the release of calls addressed to refugee-led associations with the aim to foster newcomers’ social integration
By means of a Positive Psychology framework, this paper explores which personal and social resources allowed entrepreneurs with a migratory background to turn their personal experiences related to the integration within the resettlement community into a social entrepreneurship

Summary

Introduction

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there are 70.8 million forcibly displaced people worldwide: 41.3 million of them are internally displaced, 25.9 million are refugees, and 3.5 million are asylum-seekers. In 2016, in Europe, there were 2,268,993 refugees and 1,148,856 asylum seekers Even though such a population is commonly considered as beneficiary of public initiatives that address their social integration in the reception countries, nowadays, a process of recognition of refugees as reliable interlocutors for the improvement of the reception policies has started. Evidence of such a process are the constitution of the Global Refugee Forum within the Global Compact on Refugees lead by UNHCR1 and the release of calls addressed to refugee-led associations with the aim to foster newcomers’ social integration. When integrated within the resettlement community, migrants participate to its social, cultural, and economic development

Results

Discussion

Conclusion