Tuesday, 23.04.2013.
Workshop ‘Return Migrants and Entrepreneurs: Beyond Established Paradigms’ at the European University Institute, Florence
Workshop ‘Return Migrants and Entrepreneurs: Beyond Established Paradigms’ was held at the European University Institute in Florence on Tuesday, 23 April. Tanja Pavlov and Svetlana Milutinovic, representatives of Centre for Migrations of Group 484 and Jelena Predojevic Despic, a representative of the Social Sciences Institute, presented research findings of the project ‘Transnational Networks, Transnational Entrepreneurship and the Role of State’. The research was conducted within the Regional Research Promotion Programme (RRPP), run by Fribourg University and financially supported by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
Anna Triandafyllidou, PhD, and Jean-Pierre Cassarino, PhD, hosts of the European University Institute in Florence greeted the participants and facilitated the workshop. The findings of the research focusing on entrepreneurship of return migrants in different parts of the world were presented at the workshop. In the first part of the workshop, Tanja Pavlov, PhD, presented the results for Serbia, and Brikena Bali, PhD, Professor at Crystal University in Tirana, as representative of the Institute for Leadership and Change from Albania, presented the findings for Albania. In the second part of the workshop, Mr Cassarino presented the findings for North Africa, and Mr Davide Calenda, Researcher of the European Institute, findings for Mali and Armenia. The discussant of the first part of the workshop was Kosta Barjaba, a Researcher from the Institute for Innovation of Social Policies from Tirana, and of the second part Giorgia Giovannetti, Professor of Florence University and Researcher at the European University in Florence. Based on the presented findings, a round table, with a possibility of virtual participation was organized as the closing part of the workshop.
The goal of this workshop was to encourage discussion on aspects which should be involved in developing policies treating migrations and development, with special emphasis on support to entrepreneurship of migrant returnees to their country of origin. The participants included members of the academic community but also policy makers, representatives of national development agencies, international development agencies, international organizations, nongovernmental organizations and other stakeholders in the field of migrations.