DIY Entrepreneurship? – Self‐reliance for Women Refugees in Australia

Bibliographic Data

ID9952873
AuthorsAfreen Huq (0000-0003-2096-3990, RMIT University, corresponding author), Vidhula Venugopal (0000-0002-8056-6391, Indian Institute of Management Nagpur)
Year2020
Volume59
Issue1
Pages126-142
Publication date2020-06-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Migration (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-7985 • E-ISSN: 1468-2435
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/imig.12727
OpenAlexW3033536657
LanguageEN
Citations received12
References cited55

In this paper, we call for a re‐examination of the self‐reliance ideology based on a neoliberal perspective to make policies for refugee women's (self‐)employment and integration. We use a social constructionist perspective to conduct a narrative analysis of data from the lived experience of twelve women refugee entrepreneurs. Three prominent themes emerge from the women’s own narratives of their entrepreneurial journey – self‐reconstruction, social capital, and resilience. Our findings reveal the complexities of self‐reconstruction and socialization as experienced by refugee women entrepreneurs – for whom “push” factors take precedence over “pull” factors with the explicit understanding that the onus is on them to survive with their own resilience. We argue that offering people hope of a new life means offering them meaningful choices, built on forms of economic activity whose sustainability over the long term is evidenced by the positive supports available to make sure economic activity succeeds

Entrepreneurship · Ideology · Narrative · Perspective (graphical · Political science · Politics · Psychological resilience · Refugee · Social capital · Social science · Socialization · Sociology · Symbolic capital · Entrepreneurship Studies and Influences · Gender Studies · Law · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Psychology · Social Psychology

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