SOCIAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL ASPECTS OF BUSINESS REINTEGRATION OF REFUGEES AND INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS

Abstract

The paper discusses the extent, intensity, new directions and forms of forced mobility which has become an integral and important attribute of social reality of modern Ukrainian society. Evidence is provided to support the critical need to investigate the immediate and long-term effects of migration on the nature and content of socioeconomic processes in host societies. The nature of business-oriented reintegration of refugees and internally displaced persons has been disclosed, thus, in close collaboration with government, being able to take up certain functions of the state. The research hypothesis is based on the bunch of scientific terms and principles for the development of mechanisms and institutes of economic and social adaptation of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) as a framework to study the factors of their adaptation and ‘pushing’, explore the migrants status in the labour market and the prospects for their reintegration in terms of entrepreneurial practices implementation. The aim of this study is generalization and elaboration of methods for business reintegration development and support together with identification of current opportunities and constraints in socially driven activities. To summarize the results of the study, the following cognitive methods have been employed: unity of analysis and synthesis, generalization and forecasting method, economic and cluster analysis – all closely linked to the theoretical and practical aspects of the research. Based on comparative analysis of the key approaches to the definition of “adaptability” in the context of providing infrastructural support for SME activities, the nature of an “adaptive infrastructure support for small and medium-sized business” category is revealed. A conceptual model for building adaptive infrastructure to support entrepreneurship efforts of refugees and IDPs is suggested, with due regard to the interests of all stakeholders as well as to the role and function of public business associations within the system of its institutions. Within the scope this research, infrastructural support for entrepreneurship is considered as a system of organizations of different types, functional areas and ownership forms assembled together with a common goal to create a favourable environment for proper functioning of small and medium business structures at various stages of their development. Given that this system is not only a set of relationships and links between its constituent elements but also an integral entity having a number of its own attributes and characteristics (driven in turn by the properties and characteristics of its separate elements and connections between them) can be viewed as a complex adaptive system.