Article Entrepreneurialism through Self-Management in Afghan Guest Towns in Iran Jussi S. Jauhiainen 1,2,* and Davood Eyvazlu 3 1 Department of Geography and Geology, University of Turku, FI-20014 Turku, Finland 2 Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, EE-51014 Tartu, Estonia 3 Sharif Policy Research Institute (Iran Migration Observatory), Sharif University of Technology, 11365-11155 Tehran, Iran;
[email protected] * Correspondence: jusaja@utu.fi; Tel.: +358-50-448-12-08 Received: 25 September 2020; Accepted: 21 October 2020; Published: 22 October 2020 Abstract: This article studies the self-management of guest towns (GTs) in Iran and the development of Afghan refugees’ employment and entrepreneurship in these settlements. No earlier research exists on refugee entrepreneurialism in GTs in Iran. The research is based on surveys (546 refugee respondents), interviews (35 refugees) and observations in four GTs in Iran, and interviews (12) with key public authorities related to Afghan refugees in Iran. Of the nearly one million Afghan refugees in Iran, approximately 30,000 reside in 20 GTs, each having up to a few thousand inhabitants. Following a decrease in international support for Afghan refugees and national privatisation policies, the Iranian government decided in 2003 that GTs needed to be self-managed to be financially self-sustainable by their Afghan refugee inhabitants. The motivation and necessity generated by GT self-management led to the increase, diversification, and profit orientation in Afghan refugees’ economic activities in the GTs. The GT refugee councils facilitated internal entrepreneurship fostered externally by state policies, such as the GTs’ obligation to become economically self-sustainable and the provision of tax exemptions and other incentives to GTs.