Sociological analysis of small entrepreneurial women of Turkish origin living in Germany: The case of Mannheim

Today, with the rise of international migration, ethnic entrepreneurship activities have gained an important place in the economic development of countries. Although the subject of women's entrepreneurship is very popular in the world, there are very few studies focusing on this subject in the literature, especially on the ethnic entrepreneurship of women of Turkish origin living in Germany. For this reason, one of the main objectives of this study is to draw attention to the issue of migrant women entrepreneurship and to contribute to the studies to be carried out in the field of migration and women entrepreneurship by providing resources. In the study, ethnic entrepreneurship activities of women of Turkish origin living in Germany were examined. The social networks owned by women create various positive and negative effects on entrepreneurial activities. Problems such as racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, not knowing German, loneliness, gender discrimination and excessive household responsibilities faced by many entrepreneurial women of Turkish origin living in Germany create obstacles for them to develop their entrepreneurial activities. In the study, a literature review was conducted on migration and women entrepreneurship, and face-to-face interviews were conducted with 8 women of small enterprises of Turkish origin living in and around Mannheim, Germany, using in- depth interview technique from qualitative research techniques in order to determine the reasons why small entrepreneur women of Turkish origin living in Germany prefer entrepreneurship activities and the problems they face as foreign and entrepreneur women. The obtained data were analyzed and interpreted with the descriptive approach model.