Refugee entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial economies in South Africa

The economic lives and livelihood activities of refugees and asylum seekers in host countries have recently received greater scholarly attention, using new concepts such as ‘refugee economies’ and ‘refugee entrepreneurship’. These studies challenge conventional understandings, highlighting refugees’ role as productive members with skills and capacities, with an emphasis on refugee self-reliance, their economic inclusion, and social cohesion. In South Africa, the entrepreneurial activities of refugees and asylum seekers have been relegated to the informal sector as a result of structural and institutional barriers to formal employment. This chapter uses primary and secondary data to demonstrate the vital contributions made by refugee entrepreneurs in this country through employment creation and other activities linked to local production and distribution systems which generate multiple, positive spinoff effects. We identify some key elements of refugee entrepreneurship and provide a critical assessment of the social, spatial, and institutional contexts in which it occurs.