UWindsor Annual Report 2007/2008

Two University of Windsor researchers are working to promote economic growth in the local region and beyond by helping area immigrants achieve their entrepreneurial aspirations.

Francine Schlosser and Professor Myra Tawfik Developing a series of workshops, mentoring programs and public legal education clinics will help underserved immigrants pursue their dreams of self-employment, said Law Professor Myra Tawfik and Francine Schlosser, a professor of management at the Odette School of Business.

They received a public outreach grant of $77,500 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) to get their program up and running.

“There’s a real demand for a program like this in this community,” said Dr. Schlosser, director of the university’s Centre for Business Advancement and Research. “We haven’t really focused on our diversity as being one of our greatest assets.”

The researchers say immigrants are traditionally disadvantaged in terms of resources and know-how, and they aim to provide them with the tools they need to start their own businesses by focusing on entrepreneurship, culture and communication, as well as intellectual property and innovation law.

“New immigrants often find themselves in jobs that do not match their skill sets or aspirations,” said Tawfik, founder of the University’s Intellectual Property Legal Information Network. “They come in as skilled workers and they end up doing minimum wage jobs. It has become the Canadian story—doctors coming over here, driving cabs.”

“Getting immigrants to launch new enterprises will go a long way towards diversifying the region’s economy” says Tawfik. The professors said that the results of the initiative can offer a model to enable other similarly situated communities to enlarge their creative class and their economies.

The program includes a series of workshops on understanding Canadian business customs, recognizing opportunities, marketing, product development, financing, business plan development, intellectual property law and internet law. The workshops will be followed by a one-day mentoring forum to be held in May of 2009.

Tawfik and Schlosser will engage such local organizations as the New Canadians’ Centre of Excellence, the Multicultural Council of Windsor and Essex County, and Windsor Women Working with Immigrant Women, as well as international students, to recruit workshop attendees. The project is supported by additional funding from the Law Foundation of Ontario and an in-kind contribution from the Odette School of Business.