Study: new Arrivals inspire each other to entrepreneurship

Maroun Aoun know how important it is that newly arrived entrepreneurs get help to start your own in Sweden.

When he himself came here from Lebanon in the late 80's he got the help of the enterprising countrymen and started two companies within the next five years: A restaurant and a consulting firm in organizational development.

In the beginning it is very important if you can get support from their countrymen, as concrete advice on how things work in Sweden, and help with funding. Then we need to find a larger professional network that can take the company forward so you don't get stuck in small enclaves, " says Maroun Aoun, who is national project manager at Almi Företagspartner, a state-owned company that helps entrepreneurs grow.

in municipalities where there are compatriots who run businesses are somewhat more inclined to start a business within five years than other new arrivals. It shows a report from the centre for Business and policy community.

Henrik Andersson, an economist at Uppsala university, is behind the report and studied 14.700 people from ten countries who came to Sweden in 1990 and 1991. They started usually shops, restaurants, hairdressers, taxi companies and shoemaking. Newly arrived from Syria and Lebanon pushed the more often companies than those from Ethiopia, Somalia and Vietnam.

– in Addition to the effect of the local network, it may depend on the level of education, access to capital and experience of private business from which will. Informal networks are the most common way to get a job. You benefit from the knowledge and resources available in the local ethnic network, " says Henrik Andersson.

can, in turn, help others to get a job.

Mats Hammarstedt, professor of economics at the linnaeus university in Växjö, sweden, has studied individual companies that had employees in 2014. About three percent of the owners were born in Sweden had at least one employee with a non-european background who have been in Sweden for a maximum of five years, compared with 36 percent of those who were born in the Middle east. They also had a higher degree, his partner employed.

Neither Maroun Aoun or Mats Hammarstedt think it is enough with the bets on the entrepreneurship among the unemployed newly arrived. They want it to be easier for anyone to start a business. Mats Hammarstedt warns that the level of education, lack of language skills, lack of social networks and contacts, and the presence of discrimination makes it difficult for the foreign-born.

– Some newcomers start their own businesses as a last resort because they cannot get a job, so it is a complex issue. But they starting their own businesses and employ others with an immigrant background can play an important role in the integration process, " says Mats Hammarstedt.