Refugee Entrepreneurs Building and Displaying Resilience

Abstract

AbstractNext, this chapter—“Refugee Entrepreneurs Building and Displaying Resilience”—examines how refugees can harness entrepreneurial action to find a positive identity and better life under difficult circumstances. Against a theoretical backdrop comprising resilience, positive psychology, and positive organizational scholarship, we explore the important role entrepreneurial action plays in generating positive outcomes by investigating long-term refugee entrepreneurs (in refugee camps and not in camps) over 15 months. In particular, we describe the motivation underlying entrepreneurial action in highly constrained environments (in which the constraints go beyond a lack of financial resources) and explain the causes and consequences of entrepreneurs’ resilience in the face of severe constraints that create significant and ongoing adversity. Overall, this chapter shows that entrepreneurial action can help individuals achieve resilient outcomes in the face of adversity without addressing the underlying source of that adversity. We also hope this chapter changes the way people think about refugees starting and running illegal businesses.