From Refugee to Entrepreneur: Challenges of Syrian Refugee Entrepreneurs in Turkey

This study focuses on micro, small, and medium enterprises established by Syrian refugees in Istanbul since 2011. In-depth interviews with 12 refugee entrepreneurs and 12 key stakeholders will provide valuable data to understand the socio-economic inclusion of refugees through entrepreneurship. Exploring the legal and administrative difficulties of refugee entrepreneurs can contribute to the better design of facilitating environment for refugee entrepreneurs. The findings suggest that there are three main legal and administrative challenges: temporary protection status, restricted mobility, and difficulties in getting work permission and business registration. Stakeholders also underlined that entrepreneurial support programmes are fragmented and have serious deficiencies in monitoring, auditing, and impact analysis. Social enterprises and cooperatives are very important for inclusive and gender-specific entrepreneurial support but their legal infrastructure is not fully established yet.