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legal/administrative requirements who, therefore, need support. Support can be provided through
either group training or personalized advice.
Regarding the accessibility of migrants to funding and to the facilitation of doing business, the
importance of investment with growth potential, it is highlighted that they need immediacy in
financial support through loans and grants, support in the process of applying for finance, loans,
and grants and, finally, facilitation for starting a business free of charge or at low cost. The existing
legal framework in the EU for migrant entrepreneurship is also presented, along with examples of
good practices from specific European countries.
In this module, various regulatory challenges for migrant entrepreneurs are also presented. More
specifically, there are often certification and procedure requirements for self-employment that are
compounded by lack of access to funding, increased administrative burdens, difficulty in
understanding the legal and institutional framework of the host country due to language and
cultural differences, and limited knowledge of relevant regulations, and, finally, difficulty in
obtaining residence status for themselves and their family members.
In addition, areas for improvement are identified. There is a need for legislative amendments and
applications favorable to migrant entrepreneurship, compliance between national and
regional/local legal frameworks and policies, reduction of bureaucracy, favorable treatment of
migrant family members, unification of the existing regulatory frameworks, and, finally, the need
for support to local and regional authorities from central governments. The role and the need of
NGOs in promoting migrant entrepreneurship in order to broaden their involvement are also
mentioned.
In this module, the obstacles that migrant entrepreneurship encounters are pinpointed, i.e., the
overlooking of entrepreneurship as a factor in integration policies, which are usually defined more
at national rather than transnational level. Also, policies to promote migrant entrepreneurship are
neither a priority nor are they integrated into legislation. Finally, the lack of impact of the entities
responsible for the formulation of migration and integration policies at local and regional level is
mentioned, as well as the need for further decentralization of migration policy as well as the
enrichment of resources and roles in local authorities.

USEFUL LINKS:
https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/diae2018d2_en.pdf – Policy Guide on
Entrepreneurship for Migrants and Refugees
https://migrantacceleration.eu/media/D1.1-TNF1-Report_final.pdf – Identifying common issues
and challenges of Migrant Entrepreneurship Support and the role of entrepreneurial skills.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This communication reflects the views only of the author, and
the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.