Guide / Toolkit
Nurturing Immigrant Entrepreneurship: A Handbook for Microcredit and Business Support
On Immigrant micro-entrepreneurs, and the challenges and good practices in 6 European countries
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108 pages
This report summarizes the findings of the "Making Strength Meet Demand" project that the European Microfinance Network (EMN) launched in June 2005 in partnership with six of its members in France, Germany, Ireland, Belgium, Norway and Spain. The report aims to:
- Raise awareness of the utilization of resources inherent in cultural diversity.
- Identify microenterprise support practices that strengthen chances for immigrants to succeed in their business.
The report examines:
- The fairly strong dynamics of immigrant entrepreneurship in Europe.
- The combination of factors that lead immigrants to choose entrepreneurship.
- The implications of these factors for enterprise characteristics and finds that immigrants concentrate in sectors with low entry barriers in terms of qualifications and capital.
- Immigrant entrepreneurs needs, such as business support and access to finance.
- Supportive measures for immigrant entrepreneurship such as:
- Outreach and access to information;
- Inclusive financial services;
- Business support services.
The paper concludes by making the following recommendations:
- Remove obstacles in the regulatory and legal framework;
- Support measures that foster self-employment;
- Implement pro-active strategies for awareness-raising and outreach;
- Improve access to finance;
- Better non-financial business support services.
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