Comparing Refugee and South African Migrant Enterprise in the Urban Informal Sector
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14426/ahmr.v3i2.827Keywords:
Informal sector, Business strategies, Xenophobia, Refugee entrepreneurs, South African migrant entrepreneursAbstract
Comparisons between the informal business operations of South Africans and
international migrants are increasingly common. The conventional wisdom is
that survivalist South Africans are being displaced by entrepreneurial migrants
with a long tradition of informal enterprise. This paper is the first attempt to
explicitly compare the informal enterprises established by refugees and South
African migrants in urban areas. The paper is based on a comparative analysis
of over 2,000 refugee and South African informal enterprises. The stereotyping
of refugees in public discourse as undermining and destroying South African
competitors is far-removed from the reality. The idea that refugees have a
competitive advantage as experienced entrepreneurs is also clearly fallacious.
Refugees are extremely motivated, hard-working and dedicated, and employ a
number of legitimate business strategies to achieve success.
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