Migrants entrepreneurship

4 projects that contribute to a new path in migrants integration.

(Link to Italian version at the end of this article)

Migration flows have been more and more present in the news and, even more, in our real lives, with many people moving into our cities from different countries. This has been impacting a number of countries in Europe, with many questions and issues still needing solutions or innovative ways to smooth neighborhood relationships. When it comes to integration of migrants, a number of questions do arise: do they speak the language of the country receiving them? Can different habits and traditions live together? Can they find a home, and can they find a job, that is a pivotal step towards integration?

Many topics, and most of them of difficult understanding, with many angles they can be looked at. If we could find the better way to manage those, there will be a concrete opportunity for the receiving countries to be enriched by new cultures, traditions, mindsets which can bring a new way to look at life. We could not be in agreement with all of these new ways of thinking, but I still see the meeting of different culture mostly as an opportunity.

This could be even truer when newcomers have an entrepreneurial mindset, and can transform their skills and experience in a new venture, or can in any case give a positive contribution to an existing venture or company.

A specific area of research and experiments has born in recent years, aimed to nurture and foster possible paths to entrepreneurships of migrants. This thanks also to specific programs from the EU, which started funding projects to develop and grow potential migrant entrepreneurs. This of course has been of interest also to InnoVits, the association I am part of, which is used to investigating and researching about the development of the startup ecosystem.

There are, indeed, many studies and articles analyzing and debating whether migrants do have or not an entrepreneurial spirit stronger than resident people have, in Europe and worldwide. I do believe there is no a clear data evidence of this, and in fact there too many variables that might impact the analysis:

• migrants already are a smaller part of their country of origin, without being statistically relevant;
• they might have moved for a variety of reasons (and not necessarily they did want to take the risk);
• the success or failure of a startup or a business in general also depends on the specific combination between the migrant entrepreneur and the existing conditions in the receiving countries (specific laws, economic phase, conditions of the job market, etc..)

Having said so, what thrills me in general, is the effort to sustain new businesses and ventures, and migrant entrepreneurship does not make an exception.

Following the general debate in Europe, and also thanks to the programs funded by the European Union, a few pilots did arise in Italy, or are under development, even if nothing exists so far with a very extensive reach.

There have been, although, a small number of initiatives aimed to enhance the opportunities for migrants to access job opportunities, but only a very few of them have had a real focus on entrepreneurship, and even in the selection of targets, there have been many different choices in designing the selection itself (which age should we focus on? What is the minimum level of language capabilities? Should we work with migrants in general or refugees?)

Even if there are many organizations working with migrants, to support them in some of the different topics outlined before for integration, I have found it enriching knowing a bit more about some of the project launched so far in Italy. They could have been focused either on vocational training or start-up development, and even if some of them can be considered more as a pilot or prototype, rather than real references with a consistent track record, I believe they have in themselves some good practice or represent a seed for future development.

Again - this does not want to be a full comprehensive list of any experience in Italy, but more a view on some of the experiences met, and any suggestions or additional references are welcome. Here they are:

o  Italian Red Cross (Milan branch) is mostly known for its medical aid, but they are also running social projects as Esiras, funded from EU as well, and running in a few European countries. The project lasts 18 months, ending in June 2019, and will bring at least 60 persons to receive a full vocational training and at least 20 internships. Although the aim of the project is not to create or run new ventures, many trainees are showing a can-do attitude that make them successful in the training, and might lead to new plans for them to become business owners. Red Cross is mostly working on the empowerment of candidates, in terms of soft skills and some key competences, where local partners can train on specific technical matters (vocational trainings).

o  Make a cube is a venture incubator focused on social issues, usually partnering and collaborating with several actors of civil society and municipality. They have run MEnt project (Migrant Entrepreneurship - financed from AMIF), with two calls for ideas and call for people, with the object of attracting migrants and refugees to develop a business or to join a team of entrepreneurs. The project has been implemented in parallel in 5 EU countries (Italy, France, Belgium, Germany, Austria) and in Italy trained more than 40 people.

o  Mygrants.it was born as web-app and app to help SPRARs and CAS to provide training to migrants, and empower them by giving them all the basic information on their rights and duties in Italy, for study or career placement opportunities. Funded by a migrant himself, it is a micro-learning app that has quickly reached an impressive number of registered individuals, thanks to a smart user acquisition and business model that implies getting enrolments from SPRARs and CAS. Now they are providing mentorship to migrants’ and Italians’ start-ups as well.

o  Unicef runs in in other countries Upshift, a program to empower adolescents' growth mind-sets and their ability to identify community challenges, set realistic goals and develop entrepreneurial solutions in the form of products or services. The program in now starting in Sicily, Italy and the first cycle will end in June 2019, with partners such as Junior Achievement and Mygrants.it itself. Upshift focuses on a young target group of Italians and migrants with trainers specialized in youth issues and development, and it does not necessarily end with the constitution of a start-up.

Still I believe that there is an untapped opportunity here. Willing or not, in the past decades migrants flows have changed the face of cities, impacted our lives, and brought significant changes in habits and customs. The opportunity ahead is to create a layer of the ecosystem able to receive and empower the most entrepreneurial mindsets among those people, to let them bring a remarkable contribution to our economic system, either in new ventures or in job creation.

[An Italian version of this article has been published on StartupItalia.eu]