New development: From aid to empowerment—making refugee policy more sustainable

IMPACT

Globally, refugee support has been rendered unsustainable by the contemporary pace and scale of human displacement. This article proposes that policy shifts towards greater opportunities for refugees and asylum seekers can complement humanitarian aid and ease the financial pressure building in the sector. This article examines what ‘opportunity-focused initiatives’ look like by focusing on refugee business support initiatives being piloted in several territories around the world. The authors consider the practical and policy implications of this shift and propose a research agenda to facilitate collaborations between public administrators, researchers, programme delivery bodies and refugee communities.

ABSTRACT

This article explores the growing shift towards opportunity-focused policies, particularly the support of refugee-founded businesses that bolster self-determination and dignity as individuals rebuild their lives. Examples of successfully implemented initiatives are provided. The authors call on researchers and public administrators to consider where transitions between humanitarian and opportunity systems can be co-ordinated. One key challenge facing policy-makers is that shifting to an opportunity-focused policy does not negate the need for sensitivity in supporting asylum seekers and refugees who are likely to have experienced trauma. Another challenge is that the refugee sector and business sector are not currently well aligned in most countries that have piloted business support programmes, creating some issues with implementation. The authors detail a research framework that is sensitive to the macro, meso and micro level implications of shifts towards greater opportunities for refugees and asylum seekers.

KEYWORDS:

• Asylum seekers
• business support
• empowerment
• opportunity
• refugee policy
• social integration
• sustainable policy

Introduction

For the first time in history, more than 1% of the world’s population has been displaced by war, violence or environmental disaster (UNHCR, 2022a). Global displacement figures have risen annually for the past six years and are projected by the World Bank to reach 143 million by 2050 (World Bank, 2018). In an ‘age of displacement’ (Betts, 2021, p. 25), humanitarian systems designed to meet the safety and survival needs for displaced groups have become unsustainable by the scale, pace and persistence of global instability. In 2022, 3.7 million Ukrainian refugees were driven into neighbouring countries in just three weeks (UNHCR, 2022b): a momentum unheard of since the Second World War. The situation in Ukraine remains dynamic and ongoing (for example as a result of the Nova Kakhovka dam collapse: Holt, 2023), overlapping with other crisis situations; consider Ukraine in the context of massive flooding in Pakistan (World Bank, 2022), violent upheaval and war in Afghanistan and Syria, and the protracted conflicts in Venezuela, South Sudan and many other nation states (UNHCR, 2022a). Policy-makers in government departments have struggled to respond rapidly at such scale—often deferring to grassroots organizations to meet the pressing and longer-term needs of refugees (Florian et al., 2019; Kornberger et al., 2018). The conflation of different groups on the move makes designing migration policy more challenging. Public administrators must consider asylum seekers without citizenship rights, resettled refugees granted the right to safety and sanctuary and economic migrants—all of whom have been caught up in the same migration flows under very different conditions. In light of prevailing confusion between these different migrant groups, the political discourse surrounding refugee policies can be fraught and this impacts the viability of different policy approaches.

One dimension of the current international refugee system that has creaked under the weight of successive crises is an emphasis on humanitarian aid, which rightly dominates during emergencies, but which overshadows the economic lives and contributions of refugees in the longer term (Betts & Collier, 2017). The financial cost of such aid is significant since the average time a refugee spends in exile is now estimated to be between 17 and 21 years (World Bank, 2018): a long time to survive on stipends and food parcels. Long-term reliance on humanitarian systems can also have a stultifying effect on refugees’ abilities to support themselves and integrate into host communities by restricting their rights to work, move and own property (Lee et al., 2020; Nardon et al., 2021; Szkudlarek et al., 2021). Although the economic and humanitarian needs of refugees need not be considered mutually exclusive (Betts, 2021; Betts & Collier, 2017), the speed, severity and frequency of fresh refugee crises demand a sharp focus on survival and perpetuate the one-sided treatment of refugees as primarily a humanitarian concern.

The key dilemma for policy-makers is how to sustainably support asylum seekers and refugees at scale? In response, a growing number of grassroots and non-profit organizations are partnering with government departments, philanthropic donors and corporations to enable displaced groups to have greater agency in their own resettlement and ‘thrive through the power of their own ideas’ (see www.wearetern.org) and skills.

Shifting from necessity to opportunity focus: exploring business support for refugees

Since the so-called ‘long summer of migration’ following the eruption of the Syrian civil war, numerous initiatives to support refugees with business ideas have been developed and evaluated (see Table 1 for examples). In the UK, the Home Office supported a national pilot to see whether the success of a pioneering initiative in London could be replicated across different UK regions with different ecosystems of business support (Richey et al., 2021). Public administrations across the globe, including Australia, France, Germany, Japan, and the Levant region, piloted similar schemes, aiming to support the natural inclinations of refugee populations for business, which in many countries appeared to be higher than local populations (Centre for Entrepreneurs, 2019). The motivation behind these support initiatives was to stimulate a ‘win–win’ scenario for hosting regions and refugee groups. Regional state departments reduce the costs of supporting refugees by bolstering self-reliance (Centre for Entrepreneurs, 2018), while refugees experience higher levels of self-determination and wellbeing by using their skills and more fully integrating into their host communities (Richey et al., 2022a).

Table 1. Open access reports featuring refugee business initiatives.

Project/report name	Countries	Descriptor	URL
Starting afresh: how entrepreneurship is transforming the lives of resettled refugees	UK, the Netherlands, Denmark	Centre for Entrepreneurs and the Saïd Foundation examining refugee business support initiatives in London, the Netherlands and Denmark	https://centreforentrepreneurs.org/cfe-research/starting-afresh-how-entrepreneurship-is-transforming-the-lives-of-resettled-refugees/
Policy guide on entrepreneurship for migrants and refugees	International	From UNCTAD and the International Organization for Migration (IOM)	https://unctad.org/webflyer/policy-guide-entrepreneurship-migrants-and-refugees
Policy brief on refugee entrepreneurship	The Netherlands, Canada, Australia, Italy, Sweden, Greece, Denmark, USA	OECD library report	https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/economics/policy-brief-on-refugee-entrepreneurship_70571d6f-en
Social entrepreneurship at the margins: helping refugees, migrants, and human trafficking survivors reclaim their futures	USA	Examining programmes for refugees. From the Miller Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, Santa Clara University, USA	https://www.millersocent.org/social-entrepreneurship-at-the-margins/
Global refugee entrepreneurship survey	Europe	Examines programmes across a network. Funded by FAIRE—Fund for Action and Innovation by Refugee Entrepreneurs, UK	https://centreforentrepreneurs.org/cfe-research/global-refugee-entrepreneurship-survey-2019/
Breaking down barriers: fintech solutions for refugees—European focus	Germany	Explores ecosystems of support for refugee businesses. Funded by Village Capital	https://newsandviews.vilcap.com/reports/breaking-down-barriers-fintech-refugees
Seven steps to success: enabling refugee entrepreneurs to flourish	Australia	Examines support from an ecosystem perspective. Produced by the Centre for Policy Development, Australia	https://cpd.org.au/2019/04/seven-steps-to-success-report/
Mapping refugee and migrant entrepreneurship ecosystems in Europe	Europe	Produced by the Human Safety Net, Fondazione Generali, Italy	https://www.thehumansafetynet.org/programmes/for-refugee/refugee-entrepreneurs
UK refugee entrepreneurship pilot: independent academic evaluation	UK	Evaluation of UK pilot initiative funded by the Home Office and the Big Lottery Community Fund	https://centreforentrepreneurs.org/programmes/refugee-pilot/
Relentless: Syrian refugee entrepreneurship in host countries	Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq	Follows individuals in the Levant region. Produced by Jusoor	https://ahmadsb.com/new-report-relentless-syrian-refugees-entrepreneurship-in-host-countries/
The power of nurturing refugee businesses	Kenya	Funded by the British Academy of Management and Society for Advancement of Management Studies. East African initiatives in and around refugee camps	https://hdl.handle.net/2134/23146043

Table 2. Research agenda for opportunity-focused refugee support.

Ecosystem level	Opportunity-focused refugee policy challenge	Research questions
Macro level (Institutional/societal)	Moral obligations and protection for refugees	How can refugees’ rights be ring-fenced and preserved in the course of opportunity-focused initiatives? How can the additional data generated about refugees be appropriately managed?
	Access and inclusion in refugee business support	How might the provision of refugee business support create advantages and disadvantages? Can opportunities emanating from refugee business support be shared with local populations?
	Managing contextual idiosyncracies	How can contextual expertise from organizations, society and policy-makers be harnessed in the co-design of initiatives? How well do models of support and funding translate into different regions? How can small niche initiatives that work locally become scalable?
Meso level (organizations/ initiatives)	Stimulating cross-sector collaborations	Which incentives can be shared between humanitarian and business sectors to stimulate collaboration? How might cross-sector collaborations be sustainably funded?
	Hybrid skill and resource requirements	What essential ecosystem characteristics facilitate refugee business support? How can greater empathy be incorporated into business processes? What broader roles do business advisors take on in the process of refugee business support?
	Broadening measures of value for business support	How can meaningful transitions happening during the programme (rather than at the end) be captured? How can business outputs be integrated with measures of social integration and wellbeing? How might longer term changes in the lives of refugees be captured?
Micro level (individuals/ beneficiaries)	Ethical standards for refugee recruitment	What thresholds indicate a refugee’s readiness to take part in business initiatives? Should initiatives target broad or narrow target groups? How might refugees not recruited onto business initiatives benefit from opportunity-focused policies?
	Supporting transitions	How can refugees’ wellbeing be preserved during transitions from aid towards empowerment? How might agencies in different sectors better collaborate to make transitions more transparent and safer for refugees? What opportunities for refugee leadership emerge through business support initiatives?

The design of business support initiatives has largely been based on overcoming barriers specific to refugees as they resettle in safe places (Al-Dajani et al., 2019; Harima, 2022; Shepherd et al., 2020; Villares-Varela et al., 2022). Some refugees are pushed into entrepreneurship because they have few other options for rebuilding their lives (Szkudlarek et al., 2021), but others come from family business backgrounds and have a natural preference for entrepreneurship as a career (Freiling et al., 2019). Most refugee-led businesses struggle to access financial support and are cut off from networks both in their countries of origin and in their host communities (Harima, 2022).

Programmes for entrepreneurial refugees have attempted to address these hurdles with their provision of programming and services. Programmes include such components as classroom-based business development courses (Thompson & Illes, 2020); direct funding (grants) and access to funding institutions (www.refugeeinvestments.org/resources); mentorship and business advisory services (Street et al., 2022); and access to markets through bespoke and digital platform partnerships (Klyver et al., 2022). Early evidence has shown that, under the right circumstances, such initiatives can operate at scale in a variety of different contexts, including the resource-constrained settings of refugee camps (Richey et al., 2021; 2022b). However, the positive outcomes emanating from business support projects can take time in the complicated trajectories of refugees’ lives. Upfront funding and contextual sensitivity are crucial components of projects, supporting the notion that refugees need bespoke programming which does carry an upfront cost.

Another complication facing public administrators and funders is how to measure the success of refugee business programmes. Measures of growth in revenues, employment and formal business registrations are standard in the business sector. However, programme providers argue that the impacts of refugee business support are more profound and wide ranging, with spill-overs beyond typical business dividends. These include indications that business support engenders greater self-determination (Richey et al., 2022a; de la Chaux & Haugh, 2020), empowers refugees to address local social needs (Jones et al., 2019) and contribute economically to their receiving countries (Centre for Entrepreneurs, 2019). Indeed, it has been argued that enabling refugees to become economically active, to the benefit of themselves and their host societies, could unlock a more sustainable approach to refugee support (Betts, 2021; Centre for Entrepreneurs, 2018).

While there is potential to develop more sustainable refugee policies by making aid and opportunity more compatible, there are caveats that require careful consideration and further investigation to ensure that policy changes do good and do no harm among these vulnerable groups. One way forward is for scholars, practitioners and public policy-makers to work together in piloting, assessing and organizing opportunity-focused initiatives. We discuss what collaborative policy and programme design might entail in the next section.

Opportunities and challenges in policy design and implementation

Measuring the ‘success’ of business support programmes has become an important aspect of shifting from aid towards opportunity in refugee policy. In step with the broader social impact movement (Ebrahim & Rangan, 2014), funders of refugee business support want to understand what outcomes can be reliably reproduced across contexts. The current gold standard of assessment is randomized control trials (RCTs), which are very challenging to operationalize in asylum and refugee settings because controlling variables and establishing causality are near impossibilities. Without these methods, programmes tend to utilize ‘theories of change’, which operate as logic models that articulate the input, process and output of business support programmes (Wry & Haugh, 2018). On the ground, managers collecting data and reporting the success of programmes to public administrators argue that narrowly focusing on business metrics risks missing more profound changes emerging as refugees re-establish their lives in ways that are meaningful to them (Richey et al., 2021; 2022a). Refugee business support managers also express concerns that, if governments focus on driving and replicating business outputs, the empathy and sensitivity required by refugee groups might be lost. In response, some projects have tried to reduce their reliance on public funds and grant writing, adopting social enterprise models (Haller & Kreiner, 2020), but this nascent sector still relies heavily on government and philanthropic funds. Likewise, experiments with folding refugee business support into larger more stable funds are underway but, as yet, strong connections between opportunity-focused programming and integration outcomes are challenging to measure. We see the search for appropriate tools that balance empathy and logic as a pragmatic opportunity to move the sector forward.

Another factor impeding the complementarity of humanitarian and opportunity-focused policies is that transitions from aid to empowerment are not yet well mapped out. From an individual point of view, refugees are forced to rely on a constellation of support organizations. Understanding how starting a business impacts these other relationships is extremely difficult to understand. Refugee, state and business sectors have typically operated separately and their processes tend not to align. This makes it challenging for refugees to anticipate the implications of registering their businesses and how, for example, starting a business might impact their housing and other state provision (Richey et al., 2021). The more precarious the setting, the more cautious asylum seekers and refugees feel about taking the leap to start a business (Richey et al., 2022a). Policy-makers can make strides towards solving these issues by making transitions between aid and opportunity more transparent; ensuring that refugees and support programmes are confident about what these transitions involve.

While a stronger opportunity focus can help make refugee policy more sustainable, there are several caveats that deserve closer examination. Early pilots suggest that, while an ecosystem of organizations and actors are involved in the development, delivery and success of opportunity-focused policies, differing and sometimes conflicting incentives for participating can create tensions that threaten to upend well-intentioned policy changes. We use Osborne et al.’s (2022) public system ecosystem perspective to propose a research agenda that is sensitive to the tensions that can arise within and between organizations participating in refugee support initiatives, shown in Table 2. This framework facilitates a clearer view of how opportunity-focused policy shifts might be enacted at different organizational levels among collaborators.

Concluding remarks

While it would be disingenuous to suggest that refugee business support could replace humanitarian aid, the hope of eventually transitioning refugees to a state of greater self-determination is potent for refugee groups and aid agencies alike. In this article we have discussed features of business support initiatives that show what opportunity-focused policies may produce. While the transition from necessity to opportunity poses challenges, such as the need for sensitivity in supporting traumatized individuals and the misalignment between the refugee and business sectors, successful examples of business support programmes are abundant. We have showcased some of these and suggested that finding appropriate measurement tools to balance empathy and logic is crucial for advancing the sector. We call on policy-makers to facilitate transparent transitions between humanitarian aid and opportunity systems, ensuring that refugees and support programmes understand the implications and requirements involved.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michelle Richey

Michelle Richey is a senior lecturer in technology and entrepreneurship at Loughborough University, UK. She works with organizations addressing pressing social issues globally. She is the Working Group Chair for Research for the Refugee Entrepreneurship Network and has led several large-scale, impact-oriented research projects. She has published peer-reviewed articles on social technologies, social entrepreneurship and innovation and open access reports targeting policy change.

Jade Wendy Brooks

Jade Wendy Brooks is a lecturer in information systems at the University of Auckland Business School, New Zealand. Jade's research takes interest in social and organizational aspects of information systems and, using predominantly qualitative methods, attends to a variety of contexts including globally distributed teams, social innovations, and digital inclusion/exclusion. Her research has been published in peer-reviewed journals and has been presented in leading international conferences including ICIS, ECIS and the Global Sourcing Workshop.