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From Boats to Businesses From Boats to Businesses The Remarkable Journey of Hazara Refugee Entrepreneurs in Adelaide Full Report By Professor Jock Collins and Dr Katherine Watson (UTS Business School) and Associate Professor Branka Krivokapic-Skoko (CSU School of Management) Centre for Business and Social Innovation Corresponding Author: Katherine Watson [email protected] © 2017 University of Technology Sydney Acknowledgements We would like to thank all those who assisted in the fieldwork for this report. In particular Aref Ahmadi, who was our key link to the Adelaide Hazara business community and without whom this research would not be possible. Aref drove us to the interviews and provided the bridge of trust that enabled the informants to open up to us about their remarkable journeys from boat people to business people. We would also like to thank Multicultural Youth South Australia Inc (MYSA) and Tamara Stewart-Jones who linked us to Aref and provided the transport for our fieldwork in Adelaide. Finally we thank the informants, the Hazara refugee entrepreneur informants in Adelaide, whose stories and experiences comprise the bulk of this report. Because of human research ethical safeguards and procedures, we do not name them in this report, but we are forever indebted to them for the warmth, friendliness and hospitality that they showed us and for the trust that they placed in us to tell their story. Citation for this report Collins, J., Watson, K. and Krivokapic- Skoko, B. 2017, From Boats to Businesses: the Remarkable Journey of Hazara Refugee Entrepreneurs in Adelaide: Full Report, Centre for Business and Social Innovation, UTS Business School: Sydney. From Boats to Businesses: the Remarkable Journey of Hazara Refugee Entrepreneurs in Adelaide Contents Acknowledgements .................................................................................................. i Abbreviations ......................................................................................................... iii Executive Summary ................................................................................................ 1 Background ................................................................................................... 2 Key Findings .................................................................................................. 4 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 11 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................... 14 2. Background on Refugees in Australia and South Australia. ......................... 22 3. The Refugee Entrepreneurship Paradox. ........................................................ 32 4. Conceptual Framework. .................................................................................... 38 5. Methodology ...................................................................................................... 43 6. Hazara Refugee Entrepreneur Informants in Adelaide .................................. 47 Location of the business .............................................................................. 54 7. Key Findings ...................................................................................................... 58 8. Employment and entrepreneurship ................................................................. 69 Education..................................................................................................... 70 Parents/Family prior entrepreneurship experience ...................................... 73 Pathways to entrepreneurship ..................................................................... 75 Reasons for starting a business .................................................................. 90 9. The current businesses .................................................................................... 97 Starting up the business .............................................................................. 98 Staffing the business ................................................................................. 102 Length of time in business ......................................................................... 107 Barriers and difficulties in business ........................................................... 108 Business success? .................................................................................... 118 Future plans ............................................................................................... 123 10. Life in Australia ............................................................................................. 130 Cultural networks ....................................................................................... 131 Racism....................................................................................................... 135 Outlook on life in Australia ......................................................................... 137 11. Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 142 12. References ..................................................................................................... 146 ii Centre for Business and Social Innovation Abbreviations ATAR Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank CSU Charles Sturt University ESL English Second Language NAP National Assessment Program NSW New South Wales SA South Australia UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UTS University Technology Sydney WA Western Australia iii From Boats to Businesses: the Remarkable Journey of Hazara Refugee Entrepreneurs in Adelaide Decoration of one of the many restaurant businesses (Photo: Kathy Watson) iv Centre for Business and Social Innovation Executive Summary 1 From Boats to Businesses: the Remarkable Journey of Hazara Refugee Entrepreneurs in Adelaide Executive Summary Background The Hazara are a minority in Afghanistan persecuted by the Taliban, refused education and employment and harassed, imprisoned, and tortured by them. They speak a dialect of Dari called Hazaragi and the clear majority of them are Shi'a Muslims. In response to the persecution that they received in Afghanistan many Hazara fled Afghanistan – joining more than 65 million displaced people in the world today – to seek asylum and protection in other countries. In the past two decades some displaced Hazara reached Australian shores seeking asylum. Many of these arrived by boat, though these were later joined by relatives who arrived by plane as part of the humanitarian immigration program. Despite their horrific stories and experiences of displacement and their desperate and dangerous long journey to Australia, some Hazara have been able to establish a business in Australia. This report tells the story of Hazara refugee entrepreneurs in Adelaide. It is a story of hard work, determination, risk-taking and of overcoming what appear to be unsurmountable barriers. Today these Hazara refugee entrepreneurs in Adelaide strive to provide for their families, to provide employment for others – particularly Hazara refugees – and to contribute to the Hazara community and the broader cosmopolitan Australian community in Adelaide. Fortunate and thankful for an opportunity to establish a new life in Australia, they are optimistic about the future of themselves and their families. This report is based on fieldwork conducted in Adelaide as part of a nation-wide survey of refugee entrepreneurs for an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant1. The fieldwork in Adelaide was conducted over three visits in 2016. We interviewed 31 Hazara refugee entrepreneurs (29 males and 2 females) who had established a business in Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. While most were born in Afghanistan, nineteen of these Hazara refugee entrepreneurs had lived in another country (Pakistan, Indonesia or Iran) after being displaced. The majority of 1 ARC Discovery Grant (2015-17) DP150104059 ‘Humanitarian immigrant entrepreneurs in private and social enterprises’ Prof Jock H Collins (UTS), Dr Branka Krivokapic-Skoko (CSU). 2 Centre for Business and Social Innovation them had arrived in Australia by boat – boat people – a very risky and dangerous journey that reflected their desperate need for safe asylum (Sayer 2015). Because of Australian government immigration policy, they faced a period of mandatory detention on arrival until their claims to refugee status were heard and accepted by the Australian Refugee Review Tribunal (Nakhoul 2011). At least 15 informants spent time in detention – most in the Woomera Detention Centre in South Australia – and then moved to Adelaide to settle. Other informants had spent time in other places in Australia, most often capital cities of other States, most often Melbourne, but also Brisbane, Sydney and Perth. They moved to Adelaide to reunite with their acquaintances – family and friends – in the Hazara Diaspora. The businesses owned by the informants operated within and around Adelaide city. A group of businesses operated in the vicinity of the suburb of Blair Athol: a number of businesses were clustered around Prospect Road, which runs through Blair Athol and neighbouring Prospect. The report tells the story of Hazara refugee entrepreneurs in Adelaide and through their narratives a broader story of the Hazara community in Adelaide – a resilient, hardworking and determined community of refugees, most of whom either arrived by boat to attain
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