Recommendations towards a connected and resilient migrant workforce and entrepreneurship ecosystem in Europe

Building on our network, expertise and know-how, we brought together change leaders representing key stakeholders in the sector of Migrant Entrepreneurship and Employment to think about root causes and potential solutions in a systemic way.

 
In this report, we outline four major barriers to more effectivity in the workforce and entrepreneurial ecosystem and dive deeper on four visions that can be put into practice to improve this ecosystem in Europe. 

 
In short, the four areas are: 

1. Data and research in migrant entrepreneurship 

   Steps to achieve this include data conceptualization, creating legitimate and protected ways to contextualize and share data, offering a multidisciplinary and multisectoral repository of studies on migrant entrepreneurship, and collecting, analyzing and illustrating the effects of migrant entrepreneurship and their contributions to sustainable development. 

   
   

2. A pipeline for receiving and retaining migrant talent 

   Steps to achieve this include effectively facilitating and supporting access to migrant talent and job opportunities at different levels and moments in employment process, introducing more inclusive hiring process, mobilizing, encouraging and supporting the private sector through organizational and multi-stakeholder bodies, simplifying legal procedures to hire, and shifting mindsets among employees and migrants to internalize a welcoming culture and clear pathways to grow.  

   
   

3. Funding for migrant entrepreneurs and support structures 

   Steps to achieve this are focused around creating a new social impact investment vehicle that incorporates and supports migrant entrepreneurs, and streamlining inclusion and diversity into all key legislation within sustainable finance policies. Such policies should also focus on the failure of a business and possibilities to overcome and restart again.  
    

4. Collaboration and partnerships 

   Steps to achieve this include creating a connected network of innovation, workforce, entrepreneurial and start-up ecosystems on the topic for knowledge exchange and funding support. It includes helping local ecosystems of any kind to learn and improve through good practice sharing, co-creating an action plan on how to work with the public sector to improve public-private-partnerships in the sense of Triple or even Quadruple Helix, and developing special purpose vehicles to share project ownership. 

When seen as a whole, it may seem complex. However, there is a common thread being found running through them all, which involves building an interconnected and resilient, visible and functional migrant workforce and entrepreneurial ecosystem, which has migrants at its core, and holding key leadership, in order to create a culture and means to share resources and good practices, amplify voices across the continent, and show the positive impact these employees and entrepreneurs are creating.  

What is the purpose? 

 
We see migration as changemaking in action, where migrants are recognized as changemakers, innovative solutions are scaled, and collaborative frameworks emerge to transform the entire system. 

Our goal is, on the one hand, to enable you to see the whole picture better than before: this is a complex system, and too often we are stuck in siloes or isolated units, unaware of the effects our work has on others and vice versa. Indeed, this shared vision is essential to an effective, impact driven migrant workforce and entrepreneurial ecosystem: complex problems require collaborative solutions. On the other hand, we hope you also see specific actions you can carry out or join with others in implementing.  

What makes this report unique?

Hello Europe piloted its first Ecosystem Accelerator, focused on Migrant Entrepreneurship and Employment: an exciting, growing sector with a multitude of local and national solutions that are producing a positive and novel impact on society across Europe. It is also a field of action that has a series of key challenges around a lack of connectivity, knowledge exchange, data and shared resources.  

 
The iterative process involved over 130 key decision-makers from social innovation, government, policy, corporate, academia, media and social sectors. A group of 16 engaged players deeply elaborated from April to June 2022 on the following four goals: (1) to assess the root causes of the lack of a well-articulated and connected migrant workforce and entrepreneurial ecosystem in Europe; (2) to analyze the systems in which migrants operate as employees and entrepreneurs; (3) to co-design critical shifts to achieve system change and (4) to brainstorm on steps to collective action.  

While Ashoka led the facilitation process, the content was driven by the experts in the room and the credit for what you are about to read goes to them. 

What principles guide our work?  

We base our work, that is the co-creation of a connected and resilient workforce and entrepreneurial ecosystem for migrants, on these key principles:  

• To break the silo approach, key players from multiple stakeholder groups must be identified and enabled to come together to analyze and transform the ecosystem they are in, as they continue to improve and scale the individual solutions they lead. 

• To unlock the high creativity and effectiveness, it is key to place systemic social entrepreneurs and innovators at the center, who provide an energy and innovative thinking to the entire group. 

• To enable collaboration based on action with players that often don’t work together, a proven accelerator approach with systems-change tools and frameworks that guide participants through a process aimed at action, needs to be applied.  

• To steadily improve and to adjust to the given situation, it is essential to measure the impact being created throughout this process. 

We believe in a world where Everyone is a changemaker, and it is of essence that you give yourself permission to implement change from where you are, be it a corporate, public, academic or social setting, and contribute to build systems where people with migrant backgrounds can fully access new resources, spaces and tools to carry out dignified and empowered lives as changemakers. 

Contributors

• Farhad Ataee, Incubator Manager at SINGA, France.  

• Walid Barsali, Founder/CEO of BallSquad Group, Poland. 

• Nuha Boga, Program Director of Embark Project @ GDN & Mikado Sustainable Development Consulting, Turkey.  

• Hristina Bojkova, Social Innovation Manager at Steelcase, Germany. 

• Dr. Alexandra David, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Work and Technology, Westphalian University, Germany. 

• Dr. Maria Elo, Associate professor, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark, professor, Belt and Road Institute of International Business at Shanghai University, China, adjunct professor, Åbo Akademi University, Finland, senior research fellow, University of Turku, Finland, Germany. 

• Fatemeh Jailani, Chief Operating Officer at SINGA Global, France. 

• Ana Maria Alvarez Monge, CEO & Co-Founder at Migrapreneur, Germany.  

• Sandrine Ramboux, Founder and General Manager at Carma danışmanlık ve ticaret limited şirketi, Austria.  

• Nicolai Strøm-Olsen, Co-founder and CEO of Startup Migrants, Germany and Norway. 

• Stefano Rovelli, Program and Social Innovation Manager at The Human Safety Net, Italy.  

• Dr. Judith Terstriep, Head of research department Innovation, Space & Culture at the Institute for Work and Technology, Westphalian University and lecturer at the Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany. 

• Margaux Tharaux, Policy Analyst in the Territorial Dialogues and Migration Unit of the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities, France.   

• Alexander Wolffhardt, Deputy Director of the Migration Policy Group, Belgium.

Ashoka Team

• Ibrahem Ahmad, Project Manager at Hello Europe and co-leads Hey Europe, Germany.  

• Shalini Arias, Communications and Marketing Manager at Ashoka and the Hello Europe Refugee Fund, Spain. 

• Laura Batalla, Hello Europe’s Migration Policy Representative at Ashoka, Belgium. 

• Kenny Clewett, Director of Hello Europe, co-leads Hello World and leads Ashoka's Venture, Spain. 

• Ella Goncarova, Global Partnership Manager at Ashoka, Austria.

• Piotr Marek Kolodziej, former lead of Hello Poland at Ashoka, Poland. 

• Giulia Sergi, European Program Manager at Ashoka, Italy. 

Acknowledgements

We also would like to thank to Abdoulaye Fall, Monder Ram, Tina Molund, Lisen Wirén, Pedro Calado, David Lubell, Maria Amelie, and many other supporters who joined our journey and graciously lent their expertise during interviews, validation sessions and the ecosystem event in Berlin.

For more information, or further updates on how to engage with the emerging solutions, drop us a note at helloeurope@ashoka.org or reach out to any of the participants that might be potential allies.