Our Refugees Work study highlighted how refugees in advanced economies often become entrepreneurs. Think of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, hedge-fund manager and philanthropist George Soros and Asian business magnate Li Ka-Shing. But what of those who remain trapped in refugee camps in developing countries? While they have far fewer opportunities, some manage to overcome huge obstacles to start successful businesses and social enterprises. In a new blog post for OPEN, Jackie Edwards highlights how refugee …
Continue readingAfrica’s refugee-camp entrepreneurs
By Jackie Edwards Karrus Hayes started small. With a $50 loan and some free space donated by a church, he created a school for refugee children in Budubaram camp in Ghana. But Hayes, himself a refugee from Liberia, didn’t stop there. He has built a much bigger non-profit organisation called Vision Awake Africa For Development that offers community college and micro-finance services to other refugee social entrepreneurs – and builds …
Continue readingHow immigrants boost innovation and enterprise; Macron v Le Pen
Three in ten Nobel laureates were immigrants. That’s just one example of the vital – and often overlooked – role that migrants play in creating new ideas that make us all better off and in disseminating innovative practices through their entrepreneurial activity. Middle Eastern immigrants, many of whom were targeted by President Trump’s (suspended) travel ban, play an outsized role in US innovation, according to new research by Sami Mahroum summarised …
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