The primary employment opportunities for working-class Syrian refugees in Istanbul are informal work or similarly informal yet socially autonomous self-employment. State officials, developmental and financial organizations—ranging from MPs to local NGOs and the World Bank—often endorse refugee entrepreneurship as the only viable option. Conversely, their activism and participation in civil society discussions are severely limited. Based on ethnographic research conducted between 2016 and 2022 within makeshift entrepreneurial projects of Syrian refugees in Istanbul, this article highlights necessity-driven refugee entrepreneurship formed through improvisation and flexibility. This encompasses not only the self-employment facet of entrepreneurship in its narrower sense but also extends to political and community-oriented initiatives, such as the establishment of underground community centers and clinics within enterprises. The article traces the processes through which Syrian refugees, initially without entrepreneurial intentions, transform into entrepreneurs due to their needs for repair from socio-political containment in other aspects of life in Turkey, combined with the availability of resources towards refugee entrepreneurship. While acknowledging the reproduction of neoliberal free-market dynamics by integrating even refugees – conventionally considered as ultimate victims in need of others’ support – into self-reliant entrepreneurial narratives, the article also emphasizes Syrians’ creation of communal and political relations that extend beyond these imposed narratives, including unmediated cross-ethnic connections, collective autonomy, and improved economic and legal prospects. It questions the implications of such eclectic incorporation of refugees into neoliberal roles.