About the blog

Learning the Immigrant Female Trudge (LIFT) to Entrepreneurship is a research project focusing on female immigrant entrepreneuring in Finland.  Carried out at the University of Eastern Finland and funded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation, the project approaches female immigrants in Finland as the productive agents of the Finnish state.

Defining immigrant entrepreneuring as a creative authorship, thus as both authoring a tolerable life for oneself in adverse conditions and creating value for others in the pursuit of a meaningful life, the research marks the primary point of analysis as ‘layers of membership’ and explores it in the accounts of female immigrants in Finland.

Planned as qualitative modes of enquiry, the project, first, turns to active entrepreneurs who are either private entrepreneurs (including freelancers and light entrepreneurs) or in partnership in a limited liability company. The second, and equally important, part of the project, is with female immigrants who are moving towards entrepreneurship thus pondering pros and cons of becoming an entrepreneur in Finland. The project invites both European and non-European female immigrants entrepreneuring in Finland to share their experiences via semi-structured interviews. In the increasingly diverse Finnish society, the most valuable resource immigrants have is their voices, and the project aims to open a space for female immigrants’ voices to be heard on entrepreneurship.

Acquiring knowledge in research is a journey with limitations and strengths.  On this blog, shared are the episodes of the journey taken in the research project LIFT to Entrepreneurship.

Written by: Yasemin Kontkanen, DSocSci, UEFConnect
Project Logo Design: Biljana Stankovic Lori