Comparing Refugee and South African Migrant Enterprise in the Urban Informal Sector

Abstract

Comparisons between the informal business operations of South Africans and international migrants are increasingly common. The conventional wisdom is that survivalist South Africans are being displaced by entrepreneurial migrants with a long tradition of informal enterprise. This paper is the first attempt to explicitly compare the informal enterprises established by refugees and South African migrants in urban areas. The paper is based on a comparative analysis of over 2,000 refugee and South African informal enterprises. The stereotyping of refugees in public discourse as undermining and destroying South African competitors is far-removed from the reality. The idea that refugees have a competitive advantage as experienced entrepreneurs is also clearly fallacious. Refugees are extremely motivated, hard-working and dedicated, and employ a number of legitimate business strategies to achieve success