Starting a business as an immigrant in France: A viable integration path or a double disadvantage?

Lucie Anouk Catherine ARGENTIER

Master's thesis

Starting off a business as a newcomer in France: a viable path towards integration, or a double disadvantage?

Abstract:

Placing the concept of integration as a two-way process at the core of the analysis, the objective is to investigate the obstacles which immigrant entrepreneurs face when creating their activity in France. It maps the different stakeholders involved in the process and analyses their implication. For this purpose, qualitative in-depth interviews of immigrant or refugee entrepreneurs, who have launched their project in the past five years were led and analysed using the grounded theory method. It was found that immigrants experience a loss of immaterial and material resources through displacement, the question of the access to capitals hence being at the forefront when starting a business. The access to informal and formal social networks in particular appeared a pivotal element in their entrepreneurial path. While the development of specific support schemes has contributed to overcoming these obstacles, the general French environment and the entrepreneurship ecosystem still need to adapt to this public and facili-tate their navigation among the different mechanisms. In doing so, they would benefit from the expertise of immigrant entrepreneurs who have personally gone through these hurdles, and who can act as role models for prospective immigrant entrepreneurs. This contribution adds up to the literature on immigrant entrepreneurship by focusing on the French environment, counterbalancing ethnic and cultural models, and underlining the centrality of the processes of immigration in explaining the obstacles and factors leading to entrepreneurship.

Abstract:

Placing the concept of integration as a two-way process at the core of the analysis, the objective is to investigate the obstacles which immigrant entrepreneurs face when creating their activity in France. It maps the different stakeholders involved in the process and analyses their implication. For this purpose, qualitative in-depth interviews of immigrant or refugee entrepreneurs, who have launched their project in the past five years were led and analysed using the grounded theory method. It was found that immigrants experience a loss of immaterial and material resources through displacement, the question of the access to capitals hence being at the forefront when starting a business. The access to informal and formal social networks in particular appeared a pivotal element in their entrepreneurial path. While the development of specific support schemes has contributed to overcoming these obstacles, the general French environment and the entrepreneurship ecosystem still need to adapt to this public and facili-tate their navigation among the different mechanisms. In doing so, they would benefit from the expertise of immigrant entrepreneurs who have personally gone through these hurdles, and who can act as role models for prospective immigrant entrepreneurs. This contribution adds up to the literature on immigrant entrepreneurship by focusing on the French environment, counterbalancing ethnic and cultural models, and underlining the centrality of the processes of immigration in explaining the obstacles and factors leading to entrepreneurship.

Keywords

immigrant entrepreneurs, refugee entrepreneurs, integration, economic insertion, theory of capitals, social networks, incubators

Jazyk práce: English

Datum vytvoření / odevzdání či podání práce: 1. 8. 2021

Obhajoba závěrečné práce

• Vedúci: Mgr. Ondřej Kročil, Ph.D.

Palacký University Olomouc

Faculty of Arts

Master programme / odbor:
Humanities / Euroculture