Female Immigrant Entrepreneurs: The Economic and Social Impact of a Global Phenomenon

Daphne Halkias · Paul Thurman · Sylva Caracatsanis · Nicholas Harkiolakis

Apr 2016 · CRC Press

About this ebook

A third of the world's entrepreneurial activity is driven by women. With the mass movement of people now commonplace, the role of female entrepreneurs in immigrant communities has become an increasingly important component of the world economy, its productivity, and the struggle against poverty. Throwing light on the dynamics of entrepreneurship generally, and on immigrant and female entrepreneurship in particular, the global Female Immigrant Entrepreneurship (FIE) project is a huge and exciting research undertaking. Written by the project's team of researchers based in prestigious business schools and universities on almost every continent, this important book begins the process of discovering why and how female driven business start-ups often seem to spontaneously emerge in adverse environments. Is it randomness, luck, or chance that determine success or failure, or vital critical forces and the inherent qualities of the women involved? The research emerging from the FIE project points to answers to questions about the integration of immigrant communities, their interaction with host economic and business environments, and the role of women in that interaction. With findings from more than fifteen countries, from the USA with some of the world's oldest and largest immigrant communities, to African countries that are the newest destination for Asian migrants, this book will help inform social and economic policy in communities and countries searching for prosperity. More than that, the book offers policy makers, business leaders, and those concerned with business development the chance to uncover some of the mystery around the complex phenomenon of entrepreneurship itself.

About the author

Daphne Halkias, PhD, has been Visiting Scholar at the University of Oxford's Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS), where she conducted a cross-national research on female immigrant entrepreneurship. Currently she is a Research Affiliate at the Institute for Social Sciences at Cornell University, USA; Visiting Professor at American University in Paris; Senior Research Fellow at The Center for Youth and Family Enterprise (CYFE) at University of Bergamo, Italy; and Research Associate at the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California, San Diego, USA. Paul W. Thurman, MBA, PhD Candidate, is a Clinical Professor at Columbia University's Graduate Schools of Business, Public and International Affairs, and Public Health, New York, USA.. Dr Nicholas Harkiolakis is a Senior Researcher, Institute of Communications and Computer Systems at National Metsovio Polytechnic, Athens, Greece. Sylva M. Caracatsanis is a Researcher and Doctoral Candidate in Human Geography at the University of Exeter, UK.