Placing the displaced: Institutional contradictions and emotional dynamics in fostering refugee entrepreneurship in Finland and Lebanon

The recent refugee crisis has created enormous challenges for host economies. Meeting these challenges requires a thorough understanding of how refugees can be integrated into their new surroundings. In most cases, little infrastructure or knowledge exists to provide refugees with a positive and sustainable role in society. As a result, social ventures and NGOs have mobilised resources to ease the social integration of refugees by providing them with resources and by supporting them to become self-employed. This project aims to analyse the practices and activities of these supporting organisations and their impact on how refugees rebuild their lives and cope with societal contradictions and marginalisation. We focus on supporting organisations and their beneficiaries in two countries that offer contrasting settlement conditions for refugees, Lebanon and Finland. We seek to create knowledge that helps Finland and other advanced economies better integrate and support refugees.