Business in transit: Entrepreneurship and integration of Syrian refugees in Jordan and Turkey. A qualitative comparative study

Sammanfattning: The Syrian crisis has forced around five million Syrian refugees to flee their homes and cross the borders to seek asylum in other countries. Most of those refugees live in neighbouring countries, and their only viable option is local integration and full participation in the economic and social life in the host countries. This thesis is a comparative study between Amman and Istanbul to examine how the entrepreneurship of Syrian refugees impacts their integration. The thesis draws on two concepts: ‘host-stranger relations’ and ‘refugee effect’. The data is collected through qualitative semi-structured interviews with a sample of 22 Syrian entrepreneurs (12 in Amman and 10 in Istanbul). The data shows that there are multiple reasons for Syrians to start businesses; survival, financial independence, utilising previous skills and experience, and flexibility. In Jordan, besides restrictive business regulations, there is a lack of trust between Syrian entrepreneurs and the nationals, whereas there is more freedom to do business in Istanbul. However, the Syrian community is more enclaved and urbanely segregated. In the two cities, entrepreneurs perceive their settlement as temporary.