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Examining the Possibilities for Economic Citizenship Among Arab Muslim Immigrant Entrepreneurs in Norway
Abstract by Dr. Sarah Tobin
Coauthors: Mari Norbakk
On Session IV-17  (Challenges and Perceptions of Diaspora)

On Friday, December 2 at 11:00 am

2022 Annual Meeting

Abstract
This paper presents the Norwegian Research Council-funded project “The Invisible Ceiling: Muslim Immigrant Entrepreneurs Navigate Norway’s Financial Environment.” In this project, we examine the ways that Arab Muslims immigrant entrepreneurs in Norway are unable to grow their businesses due to religious proscriptions against the interest-based financing that is widely available, which carries important implications for lived citizenship. An Islamic proscription against interest-based financing leads to financial exclusion for Arab Muslim entrepreneurs in Norway, where Islamic finance tools are not offered. Our research reveals that Arab Muslim immigrant entrepreneurs are unable to access acceptable financial tools formally, and instead rely on informal avenues for financing that limit their growth potential and impede state aims of integration and equal citizenship. Extant literature argues that immigrants that experience structural barriers to labor market participation are more likely become entrepreneurs. Thus, while the initial threshold for Arab Muslim immigrants (mainly from Iraq and Syria; more than 50,000 people) to open small businesses in Norway is relatively low, the greater challenge of acquiring Islamic financial support to expand into medium-sized businesses remains; this is “the invisible ceiling” experienced by these Arab Muslims and Norwegian residents and citizens. This paper examines the possibilities for lived, “economic citizenship” experienced by these entrepreneurs. Inspired by feminist theory we see economic citizenship as the ability to participate in the market with equal opportunity. Active economic citizenship in this way then not only deals with civic participation, but also an ability to benefit from and contribute to national growth. As the Norwegian government holds aims for Arab Muslim immigrant entrepreneurs to become equal stakeholders within the state, they nevertheless experience economic citizenship differently than and unequally from their non-Arab, non-Muslim entrepreneurial neighbors. Thus, the meanings and everyday realities of citizenship in the marketplace remain unfulfilled promises of the Norwegian state. We detail an analysis of the entrepreneurs' aspirations for integration and inclusion as equal economic citizens and how they navigate the gaps in provisions from the Norwegian state in these processes.
Discipline
Anthropology
Geographic Area
Europe
Sub Area
Banking & Finance