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Entrepreneurship in Extreme Environments: Businesses in the Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya

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Refugee Entrepreneurship

Abstract

Refugee camps are designed to ensure humanitarian assistance and protection. As such, they are often governed by rules that prevent refugees from participating in the economic life of their host country. This chapter studies the Dadaab camp in Kenya, one of the largest refugee camps in the world, where refugees are neither allowed to leave the camp nor to run or own businesses. Nonetheless, a substantial informal economy has emerged. This chapter traces the story of Ahmed from Somalia, who runs an electronics repair shop in the camp, to showcase how individuals build businesses in unlikely places.

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    Name altered to protect anonymity.

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Correspondence to Marlen de la Chaux .

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de la Chaux, M. (2019). Entrepreneurship in Extreme Environments: Businesses in the Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya. In: Heilbrunn, S., Freiling, J., Harima, A. (eds) Refugee Entrepreneurship. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92534-9_15

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