Examining entrepreneurship through 'cultural lenses', this study reveals that the drive to succeed entrepreneurially and the spirit of entrepreneurship lie within certain groups of people as they are embedded in people's culture. While the opportunistic tendency of migrants is placed 'in the foreground', gender is given 'in the backseat'.
Introduction
Much has been written about African men and their entrepreneurial activities in South Africa (Mattes et al 2000, Crush and McDonald 1999). Most of the women who opened hairdressing salons in South Africa were drawn to hairdressing by reactionary/situational factors.
Motivation for the study
Significance of the study
Study questions
Objectives of the study
It seeks to identify the achievements, challenges and barriers faced by a selected group of migrant women entrepreneurs in South Africa.
Methodology
Area of study
The type of stores that were downtown reflected the needs and demands of white people. Formerly white-owned barbershops were closing as whites no longer felt comfortable with the increased presence of blacks downtown.
The study population
These female migrant entrepreneurs were successfully established in the city center at the time of the research. Of course, because of the networking principles, most of them came from the same part of Ghana, Jesikan, where the women who introduced them to me came from.
Sampling procedure
Due to the sensitivity of immigration-related issues in South Africa, this investigation was left with no other alternative. I used personal contacts to build my sample, as these women are from the same country and have the opportunity to be in contact with each other.
Method of data collection
During the data collection period, I observed and participated in group activities of my informants, such as church meetings and weddings. Although the notebooks were used every time, for all the periods I was in the field, I found that there was always a lot of data on the notebook.
Fieldwork challenges
On the other hand, the different facets of my identity clearly showed how much of an outsider I was. An example here is an experience I had during my first two visits to one of the churches attended by some of my informants.
Limitations of the study
Therefore, much of the literature reviewed focuses on issues related to a company's title deed. A revision of the recently enacted immigration law has also enriched the project's understanding of African immigration to South Africa and the involvement of African migrants in the South African economy.
General concept of entrepreneurship
In terms of the important role of the entrepreneur, especially in small and medium enterprises, a brief overview of the SME sector in South Africa is in order. In South Africa an SME is defined as a business with fewer than 200 employees; less than 50 is considered small and between 50 and 200 medium sized.
The effects of migrant businesses owned by women
The vast majority of immigrant women probably have to accept such existing structures at least at the beginning of their careers, but they may change in the long term. A need is reflected in the current and potential market for a product or service.
Social networks and entrepreneurial success
Fictive kin systems constitute an important part of the social networks that attract immigrants to a given area and provide them with the material and social support that enables them to integrate into the new society. The network created by former immigrants provides information on the better life in other countries and how to access it.
Cultural factors and entrepreneurship
While re-reading and thereby challenging some of the main arguments underlying the conventional wisdom of entrepreneurship, which emphasizes the psychological attributes of the entrepreneur, this section argues that the cultural environment in which individuals were originally raised becomes crucial in explaining entrepreneurial success. The anthropological definition of culture is that it consists of abstract values, beliefs and perceptions of the world that lie behind people's behavior and are reflected in their behavior (Haviland 1996).
Reasons why women start businesses
Finding a better way to provide services or make a difference in the lives of many people is often at the top of the list. They use the structural side to refer to factors external to immigrants: the existence of a potential market, government policies, and high unemployment as some of the factors that push immigrants into self-employment.
Women and the work\home dilemma
The resources side is used to indicate the factors inherent in immigrants: the ability to mobilize solidarity, the cultural aptitude for doing business or a trading experience are some of the factors that favor independent business activity. Women entrepreneurs, on the other hand, try to balance the combined role of home organizer and entrepreneur.
The South African Immigration Act and migrant behaviour
The bill on foreign business ownership
If the investor will not be personally involved in running or operating the business while living in South Africa or staying outside South Africa, involvement of the Ministry is not necessary. Ultimately, however, we will need new legislation to correct the more fundamental shortcomings of the current law.
Migrant malpractices
One of the school rules required us to attend church every Sunday. This could possibly be seen that way, especially because of the institutionalization of charismatic movements in the Catholic Church.
Structural opportunities for entrepreneurship
One of the main reasons why Ghanaian women are succeeding in this entrepreneurial sector is because of the opportunities that are available for such businesses in the post. Margaret Sappor, the current president of the Ghanaian Hairdressers Association was the first Ghanaian woman to go to London to the Maurice School of Hairdressing to learn how to do hair.
Cultural opportunities for entrepreneurship
Two important variables will be explored: the opportunity structures and cultural factors to aid our understanding of the entrepreneurial success of Ghanaian women migrants in South Africa. Their increased involvement in the distribution sector began with the beginning of the colonial period.
Introduction
It is probably true that the study of migrant entrepreneurship is an area better placed in the socio-economic spheres, but the implications of migrant economies in terms of identity are unexplored. It is therefore my intention to try to investigate the symbiosis between identity and migrant entrepreneurship in the case of Ghanaian women entrepreneurs in Durban.
Particularities of immigrant identity
Historical dimension of identity formation of Ghanaian women from a
Most Ghanaians who pioneered South Africa settled in Cape Town and the Eastern Cape. This is because most of the women in my sample came to South Africa just before or just after the fall of apartheid.
The contemporary mélange and the in-betweenness of Ghanaian women’s
On a more general note, Appadurai (1991) emphasized the declining relevance of the boundaries between cultures.
Case studies of the in-betweenness of identity and entrepreneurship
She hired skilled Ghanaian men and women as well as South Africans to work in both salons. She employed many Ghanaian men and women working for her and a few South Africans.
Solidarity and Entrepreneurship
Since most of the Ghanaian women who come to South Africa have the skills (even those who come without the skills are trying to acquire it here), when they see a gap, they come in and fill it immediately”. Although most of the women feel that there is no solidarity among them, there are certain practices that I observed that could be seen as an aspect of solidarity.
Being Ghanaian and entrepreneurial opportunities in South Africa
Ghanaian entrepreneurial activity in hairdressing in South Africa can be seen as an industry that was discovered or introduced for the first time. Such was the virgin hairdressing area of South Africa just before and after the fall of apartheid.
Case Study
These are some pointers to help others; especially their South African clients recognize them as Ghanaians. It is a calculated, premeditated decision made under the influence of many factors, most of which are beyond the control of the immigrants concerned.
Factors that led the women to emigrating from Ghana
Situational/environmental factors
The money that comes from cocoa production comes once a year and women cannot depend on such income that comes only at the end of the year. They are able to do this despite the fact that their husbands provide their services on farms owned by women.
Effects of the structural adjustment Plan
We are still good friends and I owe my current success in part to her coming to South Africa. The situation is made worse by the fact that my real husband (Ghanaian) is also married to a South African woman.
Social influence
An often heard saying from one of my informants 'show me a Ghanaian community in South Africa and I will show you the hairdressers'. Also, most of them said they had heard of success stories told to them by people living in South Africa.
Power relations and the economics of the family
These women are not prepared to give up their achievements simply to boost their husbands' masculine pride. This does not suggest that their husbands are unwilling to advance, but that most women are heretics.
The acquisition and transmission of hairdressing skills
Skills transmission: the myth
All the Ghanaian men/women I spoke to claim that they are passing on skills to South Africans. Can South Africans still working in Ghanaian owned hair salons do the same.
Channels of entrepreneurial success
Most of the women who own salons along the main streets are the professionals who were the pioneers in the city center. Most Ghanaian women have business cards that are given to customers who come into their salon for a haircut with their signature on it.
The effect of social networks on entrepreneurship
Some of the networks are rooted in social ties back in Ghana, while others were created in South Africa. It was easy for Magdalene because she worked in the municipality and knew most of the people.
Impact on home country
Sometimes the amount of money expected at home is more than the women can really afford in South Africa. This has now made people at home believe that those living abroad are living a prosperous life.
The issue of return migration to Ghana
In the village, the names of all the people who live abroad are known. Some others abroad do not send money, but their family members still living in the village always work longer hours (also on their behalf).
The impact on the host country of Ghanaian entrepreneurship
For the younger women who adorn themselves with top brands of perfume fragrances, top brands of clothes and shoes, a significant amount of money is spent in South Africa. Although most of them, especially those contracted by Ghanaian women to South African men can be seen as a form of ghost marriage because such marriages only appear on paper to allow the women to settle in South Africa and running businesses, some of the Ghanaian men live with their South African spouses.
The gendered nature of hairdressing in South Africa
The past 15 years seem to have seen a reconstruction of sexual spaces in South Africa, particularly with the encroachment of Ghanaian men into women's spaces. On arrival in South Africa, some found that their skills could not be used because they all came as refugees and therefore could not get a job.
The embedded space of family life/business activity by gender
Most of the women indicated with annoyance that while they wake up in the morning to prepare the children for school and breakfast for the whole family, their husbands stay in bed and have enough rest. Most of the time, it is the women who wait for their domestic help to arrive before going to the hair salons.