Female Migrant Entrepreneurship – Key Factors in the Finnish Ecosystem
Female migrant entrepreneurs (FMEs) form a small yet active part of Finland’s business landscape. Their businesses span in a range of sectors, including wellness services, creative industries, hospitality, and many others. While their motivations and paths into entrepreneurship may differ, many face similar growth obstacles like language, bureaucracy and access to support. Yet many find ways to move forward when they focus on personal competencies and available initial support. This combination highlights a growing need to understand how FMEs navigate their entrepreneurial journeys in Finland.
This article synthesizes findings across three areas: personal competencies that support business sustainability, the role of resources and networks as enabling conditions, and the barriers that restrict growth. These areas were examined to show how FMEs sustain their ventures and navigate opportunities within the Finnish entrepreneurial environment.
What We Know
Although both migrant and female entrepreneurship have been studied extensively, their intersection remains relatively underexplored. Prior research often treats these topics separately, possibly leaving gaps in understanding how gender and migrant status interact to shape entrepreneurial outcomes. In Finland, existing studies have mapped immigrant entrepreneurship broadly but rarely isolate FMEs as a distinct group. Existing findings suggest that many FMEs begin with limited resources yet draw on personal skills and informal networks to establish their businesses. These ties often help with early stability, but may not always translate into long-term growth. Despite that, FMEs continue to sustain their businesses through resilience, adaptation and experiential learning. One of the clearest starting points is the role of personal competencies.
Competencies That Drive Growth
The study indicates that several entrepreneurial competencies stand out among FMEs, while others appear more situational or less frequently expressed. Opportunity recognition was the most visible trait and was often connected to identifying niche markets and unmet needs, frequently tied to cultural or community-based gaps. This pattern may reflect limited access to broader markets rather than deliberate strategic positioning, leaving open the question of whether opportunity recognition functions as a proactive strength or an adaptive response to structural constraints.
Resilience and motivation were also highly featured. These were consistently associated with the continuation of entrepreneurial activity despite challenges, suggesting that persistence operates less as an optional advantage and more as a response to demanding operating conditions. Motivation was linked to various drivers, including economic independence and the application of skills that might otherwise remain unused. Together, these factors appeared to support business continuity in contexts where external support was limited.
Self-awareness and self-efficacy were also visible in the material, even when not named directly. They were reflected through emphasis on confidence, personal worth and recognition of practical strengths. Networking and the mobilization of others were mentioned widely, particularly through referrals and personal connections, and were often described as helpful when formal guidance was limited.
Financial literacy was rarely identified as a strength, even though challenges in securing funding were commonly reported. This was interesting, as it suggests that FMEs may recognize access barriers more clearly than the underlying skill of evaluating financial options, leaving them more reliant on external guidance. Risk-taking appeared in a similar way: it was rarely mentioned directly, yet emerged indirectly through references to stability-seeking and risk-management strategies. Rather than pursuing uncertainty, most FMEs described efforts to avoid vulnerability, especially when operating with limited safety nets.
Beyond the Individual: Sources of Support
The findings show that networks represent the most consistently enabling factor for FMEs in Finland. Customer relationships, peer circles, referrals and emotional support were described as central to maintaining business activity, with networking positioned as an intentional strategy rather than a passive resource. These relational ties served both practical and psychological functions, reducing uncertainty while providing access to clients and encouragement in unfamiliar contexts. However, movement beyond co-ethnic circles are mentioned by authors as important for broader growth, as remaining within familiar networks may restrict opportunity spaces. Household support was also mentioned in some cases, but reliance on such ties also highlights uneven access among FMEs who do not have similar relationships.
Human capital was also confirmed as a key enabler, though less in terms of prior entrepreneurial experience and more through the conversion of education, work history and self-directed learning into market-relevant skills. Networking, creativity and customer-facing ability were commonly emphasized as strengths. Yet this emphasis raises a concern about FMEs who lack transferable experience: the findings indicate that skill-building often occurs through trial and error, suggesting that those without prior knowledge may face slower and riskier learning pathways.
Host-country culture also appeared as a conditional form of support. Some FMEs viewed Finland as generally inclusive and opportunity-oriented, and in one case female migrant status was described as beneficial. Yet neutrality and disagreement were also present, alongside mentions of language barriers, stereotyping and Finnish-only resources. These responses suggest that culture may enable entry and legitimacy for some, while quietly filtering others through credibility and access constraints.
Finance was rarely framed as a driver of growth, despite its obvious importance for any business. It was primarily accessed through personal savings and discussed more in terms of constraints than opportunities, making it a paradoxical enabler rather than a sustained source of development. Other forms of support were present but uneven. Mentorship was rarely accessed, digital visibility was seen as important yet underdeveloped, and institutional services were available but rarely perceived as impactful.
Where Growth Gets Stuck: Persistent Barriers
Policy and institutional support appeared as the strongest missing enabler. Challenges included bureaucracy, lack of tailored guidance, unclear regulations and language barriers, with several administrative services accessible primarily to native speakers. While some FMEs had accessed government or EU funding, none described this as helping them overcome their main challenges, indicating a disconnect between assistance provided and the types of support viewed as relevant. Public support structures were often perceived as generic rather than aligned with sector realities, and growth-oriented advisory pathways were not reflected in the accounts.
Cultural and societal norms were also described as barriers as some FMEs mentioned language obstacles, bias and stereotyping. Discrimination was rarely named explicitly but appeared indirectly through concerns about credibility and the need to establish trust. Entrepreneurial culture in Finland was generally described as positive, though responses showed varied experiences of inclusion, suggesting that cultural support was not evenly perceived.
Finance, as mentioned before, functioned as both an enabling condition and a constraint. Access to initial capital appeared resolved in many cases, yet emphasis shifted toward financial planning, capacity-building and managing operating costs. The reliance on personal savings and limited use of formal credit suggested that financing structures were available but not widely adopted.
Networks and mentorship were not entirely absent, but often limited in relevance to growth. Networking was valued yet rarely connected to long-term development, and structured mentorship was seldom described directly. Referrals and informal guidance did support early stability, but formal mentorship remained underutilized. Overall, bridging networks and tailored advisory support appeared insufficient for progress beyond the early stages.
Quiet Forces at Play
Lastly, rather than standalone, some factors operated across all areas. Language, trust and perception appeared not as separate challenges but as forces that shaped how other enablers and obstacles were experienced. They influenced access to customers, institutions, networks and credibility, often determining whether support became usable or remained out of reach. Language acted both as a constraint and, when mediated through people or services, a positive gateway. Trust followed a similar pattern: when external trust felt limited, entrepreneurs leaned more heavily on referrals, personal contacts and self-belief. Perception, though rarely stated directly, also shaped legitimacy as both in how FMEs interpreted the system and in how the system perceived them.
Toward a More Responsive Ecosystem
The findings show that FMEs in Finland are active economic contributors who sustain and grow their businesses even when support systems are not fully aligned with their needs. Their progress often depends on adaptability, practical skills and informal networks, yet growth should not rely only on individual resilience. It seems that what enables early survival does not necessarily support later growth, as the same competencies, networks and support structures become insufficient when businesses move beyond the initial phase. Experiences varied, but many entrepreneurs operated in a space where systems remained slow to adjust, despite their demonstrated potential.
Recognizing FMEs not only as participants but as contributors to local economies and community ties may be key to shifting how entrepreneurship is supported. The question ahead is not whether these businesses can exist, but how their growth can be acknowledged and enabled more visibly within Finland’s entrepreneurial landscape.
Sources
- Romero, F.E,. 2025. The FME Effect: Key Factors Shaping Female Migrant Entrepreneurship in Finland. [Bachelor’s thesis, Turku University of Applied Sciences].
- All illustrations in this article are AI-generated images created for conceptual and illustrative purposes only. They do not depict real individuals or businesses.