Nineteenth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to shift the policy debate away from adopting a uniform perspective to refugee management based on the visions of the ‘fractured’ other to a more inclusive policy of managing diversities. Based on learnings from diverse refugee narratives and adopting an evolutionary perspective of human movements in the context of the history of human kind (Harari. 2005) refugee policy should be broadened and focussed more broadly on managing diversities of human populations. The paper is organized as follows: First, the study identifies the turning points in the symbiosis between refugees and their embeddedness in new societies. This is followed by an examination of the role of hope in such embeddedness. The important role played by hope is examined in the life of refugees when they pursue ways to make a better future for themselves and their families. The research draws upon business psychology literature to examine similarities between hope and entrepreneurial characteristics which leads to an investigation of what is recently referred to as refugee entrepreneurs. Refugee Entrepreneurs (RE) are refugees who are also entrepreneurs. Increasingly they are moving centre stage in deliberations in entrepreneurial literature. Based on the thematic analysis of the case-based topography of RE (Heilbrunn, Freiling and Harima.2019) the study suggests a broad spectrum of refugee narrations. Finally, the exploration focuses on the diversity of narrations of refugee experiences, including RE, and offers guidelines