Factores psicosociales que influyen en los emprendimientos de personas inmigrantes en Cuenca

Abstract

Immigrant’s entrepreneurship is a social and economic phenomenon, which has been a source of controversy in the host countries, many studies have been conducted in several parts of the world, but in the Cuenca, there are very few studies about this topic. The aim of this research is to explore the psychosocial factors that influence immigrant’s entrepreneurship in Cuenca. Exploratory study, when the information was mainly collected through interviews and focus-groups, completed with the review of socio-economic data of the Social Work department, databases of Casa del Migrante and the application of institutional sociograms. The participants were 18 Colombian, Venezuelan and Haitian immigrants, aged between 18 and 65 years old, who are part of one of the projects of enterprises of the Entrepreneurship Program of Casa of Migrante (Municipality of Cuenca). The main findings show that the motivations for entrepreneurship are related to the motivations to leave their native country, which in the case of the study group, are motivations of subsistence or necessity (push). However, the business ideas of immigrants convert their pull motivations into pull motivation, because they intend to help other immigrants and local inhabitants with jobs. On the other hand, Cuenca’s context hinders the development of immigrants’ entrepreneurship, mainly due to contextual (institutional support), legal (obtaining legal documents) and cultural factors (discrimination at work). On the contrary, the factors that make it possible for an immigrant to undertake are the skills and experiences that have been enhanced by the confidence of their own abilities, the development of a business plan and the creation of new networks of work.