MEnt: Migrant Entrepreneurs team-up with mentors

According to OECD, migrants are more likely to start businesses than their native-born peers. For many people with a migration background or refugee history (both low- or high-skilled), entrepreneurship is a strategy to face and overcome obstacles standing in the way of labour market integration and upward social mobility.

Despite of this, entrepreneurs with a migration background or refugee history have to cope with the various obstacles in setting up, maintaining and expanding a business such as access to credit from financial institutions, limited information on local markets and on the local business environment. Furthermore, such entrepreneurs often do not have the sufficient skills to face bureaucratic and administrative burdens that their projects have to shoulder. Subsequently their legal status may also affect the stability of their businesses. As a result of these constraints, migrants’ businesses often:

• have lower success rates (even in the short term) than those run by native-born
• provide low income and have low profitability rates
• are the results of self-employment
• have limited growth potential
• run in traditional sectors with low innovation rates and are more affected by cyclical

recession.

Consequently, there is a significant risk of running a business that does not foster upward social mobility, but conversely results in social isolation and economic downturn.

The MEnt project, (Migrant Entrepreneurs team-up with mentors) aims at facilitating, fostering and strengthening migrant entrepreneurship through light incubation cycles supported by mentors in five EU countries (Austria, Belgium, Italy, France and Germany). The outcome of MEnt is a sound methodology that can be further disseminated and mainstreamed across Europe.

Entrepreneurial projects proposed by budding migrant-entrepreneurs undergo two cycles of light incubation, with each cycle involving the primary activities of design, implementation, test and evaluation. Additionally, these projects are supported by tutors and mentors located in five EU countries. At the final stage, the methodology resulting from MEnt is disseminated and mainstreamed across Europe.

Forming crucial mentor connections lie at the core of the project. Many case studies have underscored the significant role mentors play in supporting successful incubation programmes in EU and elsewhere. Budding migrant-entrepreneurs can tap on their valuable expertise and in-depth sector experience to refine their business ideas and bring them closer to launch.

Mentors and trainers from migrant communities also play an important part in MEnt as they not only act as aspirational role models, but also foster integration and trust by providing multi-dimensional support in the form of facilitating access to human, social, financial capital.

General objectives of the project

• The project aims to promote economic and social integration of migrants by supporting them in the development of new business initiatives.
• By involving a large number of mentors (migrants and native) who will assist participants with migration background or refugee history, the project facilitates mutual cultural understanding and reduces intangible barriers between participants and hosting communities.
• In this way the project will implement concrete initiatives aimed at facilitating the access to work of migrants, as well as contributing to the migrant-entrepreneurs’ efforts at integration.

Specific objectives

• The project intends to support migrants’ “soft” (e.g. leadership, vision, risk propensity) and “hard” (market knowledge, sector specific and technical competences) entrepreneurial skills via Short Training Sessions and over the light incubation phase
• To select and support potentially impactful business projects, via light incubation (an incubation programme focused on validating business ideas within a condensed period of time) and mentorship programmes.
• To favour cultural integration and social capital, via the engagement of a large number of mentors guiding new entrepreneurs
• To develop a sound and effective methodology and tools for light incubation to be used in different contexts

The project will result in a proposed multi-scale approach. This approach identifies specific issues that must be tackled across the various institutional layers in the multi-level European governance, so that the potential and impact of migrant entrepreneurship may be amplified and strengthened and so fully realised.