African migrant entrepreneurship remains under-researched despite increasing migration flows from Africa. This scoping review examines literature to identify critical gaps and establish an integrated theoretical framework, with emphasis on the Australian context.
A Population, Concept, Context (PCC) scoping review model was employed, examining articles published from 2007 onwards. Initial focus on Australian and New Zealand contexts yielded only five studies, necessitating expansion to comparable developed economies. Thirty-five articles were included in the final analysis using thematic methods.
Three primary themes emerged: social and transnational networks; racial discrimination as a labour market barrier; and career adaptation strategies. These mechanisms operate across macro-economic, spatial-temporal and institutional contextual layers, collectively shaping entrepreneurial positioning. Racial discrimination forces high-skilled African migrants into necessity-driven entrepreneurship, while social networks enable upward mobility within entrepreneurial categories over time.
As a scoping review, this study maps the existing literature landscape rather than providing a systematic assessment of individual studies. The integrated framework transcends African entrepreneurship to constitute a paradigm applicable to migratory entrepreneurship broadly, with implications for research on refugee entrepreneurs and other migrant populations globally.
Government-funded organisations such as Migrant Resources Centres and Non-Government Organisations provide a variety of support services for migrants in the Australian context and in many other migrant receiving nations. The integrated framework can form the basis of practical support services and activities for migrants wishing to explore entrepreneurial options for securing employment and income sources in their host country.
This review integrates established entrepreneurship typologies with contextual layers frameworks, creating a dynamic model of how systemic exclusion, community-based institutions and individual agency interact. The study identifies how racialized labour market structures produce necessity-driven entrepreneurship and the temporal dynamics through which networks enable entrepreneurial evolution.
