Welcoming talent? A comparative study of immigrant entrepreneurs’ entry policies in France, Germany and the Netherlands

Abstract

This article explores the admission policies for self-employed non-EU immigrants wanting to start or move their business to the European Union (EU). Selecting immigrant entrepreneurs is a specific and understudied policy strand in the battle for talent. No common EU policy is available (yet) and although national policies do show some similarity, they differ in respect of how and who decides if an entrepreneur serves a national economic interest. By presenting a first-time model for defining the level of welcoming, this study adds an instrument to the toolbox of both scholars and policy makers for evaluating immigration policies. Whether a policy is welcoming depends on material criteria, such as entry conditions giving the entrepreneur a fair chance and on the formal criteria of the applicable procedures and the actors involved in the decision-making process. The body of the article constitutes of a legal comparison between French, German and Dutch entry policies for non-EU entrepreneurs. The article concludes that a future EU policy on welcoming immigrant entrepreneurs must set standards for a large variety of entrepreneurs, allow for the economic interest to be broadly defined and have, at the least, transparent and practical procedures.

Understanding regional talent attraction and its influencing factors in China: From the perspective of spatiotemporal pattern evolution

“…Some studies have noted that the current attractiveness evaluation does not distinguish between objective attractiveness and policy attractiveness but focuses on the overall attractiveness evaluation, which is not conducive to policy improvement. By constructing relevant indicators of policy attractiveness, the factor analysis method is used to measure the objective attractiveness and absolute attractiveness of policies, and the evaluation results of high-level talent attractiveness of provinces at the policy level are obtained [21,22]. Based on the content analysis method, some studies examine the development policy of scientific and technological innovation talents from the perspective of the development process of scientific and technological innovation talents [23,24,25].…”

Highly Skilled Entrepreneurial Refugees: Legal and Practical Barriers and Enablers to Start Up in the Netherlands

“…Moreover, welfare recipients have an obligation to "participate," which means they must regularly apply for jobs and accept jobs that are "generally accepted labour." This system easily allows for deskilling of highly skilled refugees as it has them take on any, also unskilled, work (De Lange, 2018). After three years, refugees can thus be indebted, cut on welfare and/or stuck in a menial job.…”

“…It is well documented that migrant reception conditions are influenced by multilevel policies and actors (Zincone and Caponio, 2006; Scholten and Penninx, 2016; Caponio and Jones‐Correa, 2018). Building on this body of literature, we distinguish a divide between material and procedural norms, as well as governance structures implementing them (De Lange, 2018). Conditions for accessing state or municipal welfare arrangements (material norms), the time it takes before application‐decisions are made (procedural norms), as well as the various public and private actors involved in these processes, and the governance structures at local, regional or state‐level (governance) influence entrepreneurial outcomes and hence the level of welcoming refugee entrepreneurship.…”

“…First, immigrant entrepreneurship in the Netherlands is central to many studies (Kloosterman et al, 1999; Kloosterman and Rath, 2018; Solano, 2019; Alvarado Valenzuela, 2019). Secondly, in legal literature, the temporariness of the refugee status is problematized (Kostakopoulou, 2002; Den Heijer et al, 2016; De Lange, 2018). The relevance of starting anew holding a temporary refugee status (or subsidiary protection), and the opportunities and rights attached to such status for (self)employment, has so far been overlooked in the immigrant entrepreneurship literature.…”

“…A third body of literature worth mentioning deals with immigration policy designed to facilitate the entry of self‐employed migrants, start‐ups and investors (for such policies in Australia see e.g. Mahuteau et al, 2014; and in Western Europe see De Lange, 2018). In these immigration policies, support offered by “incubators,” organizations focused on coaching and developing start‐ups (Dempwolf et al, 2015) is often key.…”