HI-GEE Joins the Conversation on Migrant Entrepreneurship
On 9–10 October 2025, researchers from the HI-GEE project took part in the Business and People on the Move conference, held at Åbo Akademi University in Turku. Organized by the Refugee Entrepreneurship Research Group, this year’s conference carried the inspiring theme Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges: The Power of Migrant and Refugee Entrepreneurship.
The event brought together scholars from different continents to discuss the many ways in which migration and entrepreneurship intersect, and how individuals navigate opportunities, challenges, and belonging in their entrepreneurial journeys.
The HI-GEE researchers Satu Aaltonen, Anna Elkina, Tommi Pukkinen, and Ulla Hytti presented the first results from the project, Navigating the Entrepreneurial Journey: Immigrant Entrepreneurs’ Experiences and Future Aspirations across Life and Business Trajectories. The presentation explored migrant entrepreneurship from a life-course perspective, looking at how entrepreneurial experiences intertwine with personal trajectories, social belonging, and community engagement. The team contrasted linear entrepreneurial paths, where entrepreneurship marks the culmination of a career journey, with entrepreneurial episodes, where business ownership appears as one phase within diverse life experiences. The findings highlight how life events and belonging shape entrepreneurial identities and how migrants contribute to both economic and social development of the host countries.
In another session, Natalia Vershinina and Ulla Hytti presented their conceptual paper, Beyond Survival: A Critical Reappraisal of Immigrant Entrepreneurship. They called for a rethinking of migrant entrepreneurship, moving beyond the binary of high-growth versus necessity-based entrepreneurship. Their paper encourages a more nuanced and contextualized understanding of the many entrepreneurial paths that might or might not lead to the growth of the business.
Throughout the conference, discussions centered on themes such as migrants’ resilience, structural barriers, civic and entrepreneurial belonging, and embeddedness in local communities, as well as the broader links between employment, economic participation, and business growth. These topics strongly echo the HI-GEE project’s core aim to understand how the skills, experiences, and entrepreneurial activities of immigrants contribute to Finland’s economic development and how inclusive practices can strengthen both individual opportunities and national growth.
