Migrant:innenökonomie Stadt Duisburg / MIRO

The city of Duisburg plays a significant role in the immigration and integration of migrants, not least due to its history as an old industrial location in the Ruhr area. Around a quarter of all self-employed individuals with a migrant background live in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), which is above the national average. In 2018, 39% of startups in NRW were initiated by foreign nationals (Kay & Nielsen, 2020). This trend is also reflected in Duisburg. People of various nationalities have been living here for decades, engaging in entrepreneurship across different sectors, now even into the second generation. In addition to economic and refugee migration, the city is also a magnet for international students because of its university, who offer significant potential as founders in Germany, as seen with successes like DeepL or BioNTech.

The city of Duisburg aims to harness the development potential of "migrant entrepreneurship." Therefore, the present study aims to provide deeper insights into the current state and future economic potentials of migrant-owned businesses. The study will deliver information on the sectors in which migrant entrepreneurs operate, as well as their path to self-employment within the institutional and socio-economic context of the existing ecosystem, to gain insights into the integration of these businesses into the local economic networks. Additionally, it offers insights into the super-diversity of migrant businesses and migrant entrepreneurs.