Foreign Direct Investment: Syrian Refugees & The Motivating Factors For Market

Abstract

Purpose – This study aims to determine what the motivating/push factors are from the eyes of refugee entrepreneurs who make direct investments. Design/methodology/approach – The question of the factors that motivate refugee investors in their direct investments was sought through the interaction model, in which the cultural and structural model was included. The research model was established to investigate the need to develop refugee entrepreneurship based on micro, meso, and macro-level policies and what the motivating factors in the ecosystem are (socio-economic variables). The study answers the question of what are the factors that motivate refugees in foreign direct investment (FDI) with social, cultural, and political differences. For this purpose, after the pilot application, an online questionnaire prepared in Turkish, English, and Arabic languages was sent to 39 FDI companies and empirically studied. The data was analyzed by quantitative method and descriptive analysis. Findings – Factors motivating refugee entrepreneurs are respectively proximity to the EU, market size, number of accepted refugees and immigration policies, ease of access to raw materials and foreign market-entry, market growth expectation, creating an export base to the neighboring market, and facilitating investment, high-profit margin expectation, industry, development and strategy plans, stability and industrial infrastructure, language and economic growth, qualified workforce, high investment rate, increasing competitiveness, innovative capacity, technology adoption, country's FDI record, laws, religion, nationality, culture, country performance(GDP, inflation), competitor tracking, foreign exchange policy, cheap labor. Discussion – The result of the study shows that, contrary to the rest of the world and what are feared, sustainable policies can be successfully developed to prevent the social cohesion problems of refugees, to provide health, workforce, and occupation, to protect them, and to make arrangements. It reminds us that countries can make arrangements against the refugee problem without acting contrary to the 1951 Convention and the scope of the UN Sustainable Goals and that the borders of civilization cannot be sacrificed to geographical borders.