Tunisian New Entrepreneurs and their Past Experiences of Migration in Europe; resource mobilisation, networks, and hidden disaffection

REMITTANCES FROM INTERNATIONAL migration are an important source of foreign currency for many indebted countries. In 1993, remittances sent through official banking systems were equivalent to over 70 per cent of Morocco’s overall trade deficit and for almost 25 per cent of Tunisia’s. In addition, returning migrants contribute to the development of private entrepreneurship: in 1994, 18 per cent of Tunisia’s private sector manufacturing firms were owned by return migrants. This book describes the main factors which contribute to the emergence of these “new entrepreneurs” in Tunisia.
In most North African countries, economic reform in the last two decades has been accompanied by the creation of formal institutions aimed at channelling and promoting investments by migrants. Macro-economic, political and institutional factors are important but may not fully explain the initiatives and resource mobilization of return migrants. Intangible resources acquired abroad, such as skills, values and personal contacts, play a significant role in shaping the decisions of return migrants. Cross-border social and economic networks and access to local social and financial resources, especially social capital, are as important as material resources for the success of return migrants’ enterprises.
This book is based on empirical research with former migrants, owners of private firms specializing in export-oriented activities. Against the backdrop of the institutional, political and economic changes which have taken place in Tunisia since the implementation of open-door economic policies (Infitah) in the 1970s, it describes the different categories of respondents and how migration influences their current activities. For those who inherited businesses from their families and for those who used to work for state-owned enterprises and took advantage of privatization and economic reform to start their own businesses, migration is clearly not relevant for the success of their businesses. However, for those who are not part of the Tunisian élite and who therefore cannot count on family contacts or on old civil servants’ networks, migration is the opportunity to become part of cross-border networks which support their enterprise. These “new entrepreneurs” benefit from economic liberalization, however they are also somehow excluded from debates on the national economy which are monopolized by government and the business élite. Hence their “hidden disaffection” with a system where the ruling party maintains control of the economic sphere.