<aside> 💡 Use this page as a source of information to improve your understanding of the situation for and benefits of working (better) with migrant entrepreneurs.

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The narrative must be changed today, away from ‘migration crisis’ to focus on opportunities for innovation, economic growth, and new models of leadership.

The increasing presence of migrants in European societies is a fact, and they as well as their descendants will mark the cultural landscape of these societies both today and in the future. Data suggests that migrants have increasingly shifted to entrepreneurship in recent decades, spanning a broad segment of the European economy.

Advantages

With regard to entrepreneurial support organisations, we see great opportunities for ESOs working with migrant entrepreneurs:

• New opportunities
• Competitive advantage
• Broadening the horizon
• Leading by example
• Unity in diversity

This said, increasing national/ethnic/cultural diversity in entrepreneurial support programmes is not a ‘silver bullet’ to automatically generate these benefits. On top of this, migrants are a very diverse group, with different backgrounds, trajectories, and motivations, making it difficult to provide a single definition of ‘incubation for migrant entrepreneurs’.

For diversity to have a positive impact, entrepreneurial support organisations need to:

• embrace inclusive cultures, such as ensuring a supportive environment for migrant entrepreneurs and providing access to resources and facilities that can help them to succeed;
• enhance policies and practices designed to minimise structural inequality (e.g., fair access to opportunities for everyone), and exclusionary decision-making practices (e.g., shared decision making, engagement and participation), and promote norms for accepting new target groups of employees and entrepreneurs to ensure everyone’s voice is heard.

Want to read more recommendations for incubator professionals from the Mig.En.Cube Research Report?

You can find them here