Hammed Olabode Ojugbele et al., COVID-19 bailout nationalism: a predicament in saving small immigrant-owned businesses in South Africa (2022)

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Article by Hammed Olabode Ojugbele, Robertson K. Tengeh and Oyebanjo Ogunlela of Cape Peninsula University of Technology in the International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science 11(6)(2022) 33-42, on government relief for immigrant-owned small businesses in South Africa during COVID-19. The authors surveyed 260 foreign business owners with an electronic questionnaire and analyzed the results with IBM SPSS version 27, interpreting them through realistic conflict theory. A vast majority (89%) said the pandemic had a very severe impact on their financial sustainability and liquidity. None reported benefiting from any South African government business support package during the pandemic.

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN BUSINESS AND SOCIAL SCIENCE 11(6)(2022) 33-42

Research in Business & Social Science
IJRBS VOL 11 NO 6 (2022) ISSN: 2147-4478
Available online at www.ssbfnet.com
Journal homepage: https://www.ssbfnet.com/ojs/index.php/ijrbs

COVID-19 bailout nationalism: A predicament in saving small
immigrant-owned businesses in South Africa
Hammed Olabode Ojugbele(a)* Robertson K. Tengeh (b) Oyebanjo Ogunlela (c)
(a)
Department of Public Administration and Governance, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa
(b)
Professor and Head of Department, Department of Public Administration and Governance, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa
(c)
Department of Public Administration and Governance, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Article history: The small business sector has been identified as an essential component of the global economy,
especially in the developing economies, where it plays a significant role in addressing job creation and
Received 19 July 2022 poverty. However, the COVID 19 pandemic and its attendant lockdown restrictions have brought
Received in rev. form 22 August 2022 untold devastation to the sector forcing many out of operation, crippling business operations and
Accepted 26 August 2022 financial viability. We seek to identify the role and impact of government relief measures in helping
immigrant-owned businesses in South Africa to deal with the impact of the pandemic on their
businesses. Primary data was collected using an electronic questionnaire administered to 260 foreign
Keywords: business owners in South Africa. The data was cleaned and statistically analysed using IBM SPSS
version 27. We interpreted and discussed the results using the realistic conflict theory. Though a vast
Immigrants, Immigrant-Entrepreneurs,
majority of the businesses (89%) reported that the pandemic had a very severe impact on their financial
COVID- 19 Bailout, Discrimination, sustainability and liquidity, none of them reported that they benefitted from any of the South African
Prejudice government business support packages during the pandemic.

JEL Classification:
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee SSBFNET, Istanbul, Turkey. This article is an open access article
O15 distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Introduction
The incidence and subsequent rapid spread of the Coronavirus have devastated the world economy, nearly grounding it to a halt at
the height of the pandemic, and the vestiges of this economic devastation remain in various countries to different extents. A major
step taken to stem the tides of the pandemic and contain the transmission of the virus globally was the introduction of lockdown
measures(Abba AHmed, 2020; Haider et al., 2020; Omaka-Amari et al., 2020; Toda, 2020).
The various lockdown regimes across different countries impose different forms and intensities of social and other changes on people,
institutions, sectors, and communities as well as governments’ Fiscus primarily through the new mobility patterns ushered in by the
lockdown regimes (Balhara et al., 2020; Caulkins et al., 2021; Rahman et al., 2020). The scope of the impacts includes social
(Dobusch & Kreissl, 2020; Eisner & Nivette, 2020; Sundarasen et al., 2020), economic (Adam et al., 2020; Evelina et al., 2020;
Inoue & Todo, 2020; Joshi et al., 2020), health(Singh et al., 2020) and healthcare delivery systems (Ahmed et al., 2020; Mishra et
al., 2020; Sahu et al., 2020), environmental (Anil & Alagha, 2021; Dantas et al., 2020), and much more.

One of such sectors is the business sector at large, and small businesses in particular (Dai et al., 2021; Gourinchas et al., 2021;
Pedauga et al., 2021). The small business sector has been identified as an important component of the global economy, especially in
developing economies where it plays a significant role in addressing job creation and poverty. For South Africa, many have argued
the fight against unemployment and crime necessitates the creation and sustainability of small businesses regardless of the owner's
ethnicity or nationality (Deborah et al., 2015; Maas & Herrington, 2006).

* Corresponding author. ORCID ID: 0000-0003-3784-3530
© 2022 by the authors. Hosting by SSBFNET. Peer review under responsibility of Center for Strategic Studies in Business and Finance.
https://doi.org/10.20525/ijrbs.v11i6.1961
Ojugbele et al., International Journal of Research in Business & Social Science 11(6) (2022), 33-42

However, the COVID-19 pandemic and its attendant lockdown restrictions have brought untold devastation to the sector, forcing
many out of operation, and crippling business operations and financial viability. This study seeks to understand how the pandemic
have affected the immigrant-owned business sector in South Africa and the extent to which the government massive business support
programme has helped this vulnerable but important economic sector. Using a closed-ended survey, we collected data from owners
of immigrant-owned businesses randomly selected from 9 cities across the country. The resulting data was quantitatively analysed
and interpreted using the realistic conflict theory which provides an explanation for the economic relationship and power dynamics
between minor and majority groups and its implication for the wider social system.
The rest of the article is structured as follows; the overarching aim of the study followed by a literature review which mapped the
relevant terrains and introduced the germane concepts. This was followed by the introduction of the theoretical framework adopted
for the study , the methodology section which reported the empirical work that was done.

This study seeks to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown restrictions on immigrant-owned businesses
in South Africa.

Literature Review
Conceptualising Immigrant Business
Small businesses have been noted to be one of the major drivers of economic development based on their role in employment
generation worldwide (Aladejebi, 2020; Elimam, 2017; Tengeh, 2013). Many of the Business conglomerates from the UK and US
started as small businesses that grew due to the involvement of their respective governments in the reorganisation of small businesses
to reduce unemployment among other (Bannock, 1981, 2004).

Within this scheme of small businesses' importance, Immigrant-owned businesses have been noted to be of critical importance
globally (Tengeh & Nkem, 2017). Immigrant entrepreneurship presents an important economic opportunity for South Africa in form
of employment creation which has important implications for the reduction of poverty and inequality, as well as stimulation of
economic growth in the country (Fatoki, 2014; Ngota et al., 2018). Immigrants have been noted to be somewhat adept at creating
business as an alternative to unemployment and in the identification and exploitation of opportunities (Fatoki, 2014; Kozlovski,
2019). However, most immigrant businesses often start and operate small (Hack-Polay et al., 2020).
It was found that 25% to up to more than 40% (in some states) of new firms in the United States were created, by immigrants (Pekkala
Kerr and Kerr 2020). A similar trend was observed in the UK where over 17% of the immigrants start a firm as against 10% of
natives; whereas a higher proportion of immigrants become self-employed or own a business in Canada (Green, Liu et al. 2016),
ditto in Australia (Atalay, Kim et al. 2014).

Travails of immigrant businesses
Studies have, however, shown that small businesses, whether immigrants or indigenes owned are always susceptible to a myriad of
challenges which include discrimination, limited or restricted access to finance, and unfriendly or hostile business environments
(Khosa & Kalitanyi, 2014; Ndoro et al., 2019) and the severity of these challenges is usually higher for immigrant-owned businesses
(Hack-Polay et al., 2020). This situation is exacerbated by their lack of or restricted access to government support. Tengeh (2013)
argues that since immigrants are in the country, economically they will be consumers and producers and the viability of an economy
lies in the number of producers or active economic actors it possesses, it does make sense for host countries to encourage them to be
active economic actors and this includes extending business support to migrant own businesses.

Challenges of migrant businesses start from the most basic business need which is patronage as studies have shown that the initial
market niche is usually restricted. Studies by Zolin, Chang et al. (2016) found that social capital greatly moderates the growth of
immigrant businesses. They found that micro-level coethnic social capital is usually the direct primary source of growth of
immigrants’ businesses, they only integrate into the larger local community and experience better growth if they operate long enough
and do necessary social adaptations (Zolin, Chang et al. 2016). This assertion should not be seen as an attempt to reduce immigrant
entrepreneurship to a mere ethnocultural phenomenon but (asides from emphasising the limited support) to underscore the foundation
role of initial support and resources usually derived from co-ethnic networks (Verver et al., 2020).

The dual liabilities

Based on multiple studies and observations, it has been discovered that immigrants are more likely to start a new company than
natives/locals in a country, though (sadly) they are more likely to exit the company early (Barth & Zalkat, 2020). This has been
attributed to the liability of foreignness which was aptly described by Irastorza and Peña (2014, pg 2) as the "additional difficulties
faced by immigrants when entering the job market or starting up a business in a new country such as poor language skills, the lack
of labour experience, the lack of human and social capital endowments specific to that country, and institutional restrictions including
discrimination". In essence, it refers to the inherent constraints associated with the "opportunity structure" of the host country for the
survival of immigrant businesses. It explains the low survival rate of immigrant businesses compared to that of locals or put another
way it explains the gap between immigrants' entrepreneurial aspiration and their fulfillment (Gurău et al., 2020; Irastorza & Peña,
2014).

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The challenges imposed by the liability of foreignness on immigrant businesses are in addition to the general liability of newness
which threatens the survival of all small new businesses in their infancy or early stage and thus account for the high mortality rate of
small businesses during this phase. The components of this include limited legitimacy, compliance challenges, competition with big
and established businesses, paucity of financial and managerial resources, etc (Barth & Zalkat, 2020; DeVaughn & Leary, 2018).
The liability of newness has been likened to a rite of passage that all new businesses must go through and it was found that
governments' attempt to help mitigate or cushion it often turns out counterproductive as such measures prevent organisation learning
and a host of other issues (DeVaughn & Leary, 2018).
Based on the foregoing, it is evident that immigrant businesses tend to be under perpetual pressure to survive as a result of the tension
created by and between the two sets of liabilities. Thus, one can imagine what the pandemic with all its attendant social and economic
implications will mean for a business sector with such “fragility”.

Immigrant owned businesses and xenophobic sentiments in South Africa

An additional layer of vulnerability for immigrant-owned businesses in South Africa is the seemingly increasing xenophobic
intimidation and violence. Despite records of making positive economic contributions, migrant businesses are constant targets of
hostilities from local elements as a result of the widespread notion that foreigners "steal jobs" from the locals (Asoba et al., 2020). A
study by Chinomona and Maziriri (2015) which employed focus group discussion with immigrant business owners, revealed that the
foreign business owners in South Africa are living in palpable fear of imminent xenophobic attacks on their lives or businesses. And
for African immigrants, “xenophobic intimidation and violence are everyday occurrences”(Grant & Thompson, 2015, pg 183).
Perhaps this xenophobic tension among other reasons accounts for the relatively limited growth of foreign-owned businesses in the
country as pointed out by various studies which concluded that the majority of immigrant-owned businesses in South Africa could
be categorised as micro or survivalist businesses (Asoba et al., 2020; Crush & Peberdy, 1998; Khosa & Kalitanyi, 2014; Rogerson
& Rogerson, 2011).
The Impact of the pandemic on Small Businesses
The pandemic no doubt affected all sizes of businesses, mostly in terms of their finances and disruption in operation. However, the
small businesses were more severely impacted. A study showed that 21% of the small businesses in Russia were not sure of their
continued existence after the pandemic (Tkach & Kurpayanidi, 2020). A survey of 5800 small businesses in the US revealed that
almost half of them (43%) have temporarily closed as of the time of conducting the survey just a few weeks into the pandemic (Bartik
et al., 2020). While most of the global business shutdowns were a result of government mandates, the chances are high that many
will remain permanently closed because of the inability of the owners to pay expenses and survive the shutdown (Fairlie, 2020).

In the US, the number of active immigrant businesses progressively reduced from February to June 2020 with over 1 million closures
reported between February and April. The business bounce back reported between May and June has little impact on those immigrant
businesses compared to that of native owners (Fairlie, 2020).

Globally, the provision of stimulus by governments was the major mainstay of support for both businesses and households, and this
cut across both developed and developing nations, but the need can be said to be more pressing in the developing nations (Loayza &
Pennings, 2020).

Theoretical framework
Hostile acts or disposition towards immigrants is nothing other than a manifestation of intergroup conflicts on a macro scale. It has
been noted that the basis of such conflicts revolves around prejudice and discrimination. Social discrimination is usually a decision
or behaviour based on the victims' ascriptive characteristics (Fibbi et al., 2021). It is connected to or the result of mental evaluations
with stereotyping as its cognitive component and prejudice as the affective one (Fibbi et al., 2021). However, people need and always
seek justification to express their discriminatory sentiments. This is because "prejudice is usually suppressed by anti-prejudiced
norms, personal standards, beliefs and values, its expression depends on a justification that allows the individual to express prejudice
without being sanctioned" (Pereira et al., 2010, p. 1232). This is the mantra of the system justification theory, which holds that
discrimination is facilitated by the accessibility of a justification seen as unprejudiced (Jost, 2019; Pereira et al., 2010).

Central to the phenomenon of discrimination is categorisation or assignment of individuals to social groups; this ultimately leads to
the partitioning of the social space by those championing the categorisation into "in-group" and an "out-group" (Fibbi et al., 2021).
This categorisation is usually based on stereotyping or the picture of the out-group in the head of the in-group (Kambhatla et al.,
2022; Kurylo, 2012). One of the aggravating dimensions of categorisation is that group members are not seen as individuals but as
members of a category towards which negative attitudes can be activated (Fiske, 2000; Zhou et al., 2021).
It is important to note that the categorisation is usually arbitrary, with little similarity or contact among the group members (Brown,
2020). Studies have shown that categorisation causes the in-group to "see" increasing similarities among the members of the outer
group and more dissimilarities between them and the members of their own (inner) group, hence a basis for negative group stereotype
(Duckitt, 2003; Warsame, 2020).

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While many theories, such as the social dominance theory, aversive racism theory, social dominance theory, system justification
theory etc, have attempted to explain discrimination from different (and mostly non-conflicting) perspectives, this study will adopt
the realistic conflict theory because of its relevance to the South African trend and context. In summary, realistic conflict theory
states that contradictory goals lead to group conflict, and cooperation-requiring superordinate goals reduce it (Sherif, 1958; McKenzie
& Gabriel, 2017).

The realistic conflict theory (RCT) was based on a sociological experiment conducted by its proponent and verified by a host of other
researchers. It held that whenever the attainment of goals becomes competitive, meaning that the success of one group implies the
other's loss, negative emotions like stereotyping and prejudice will thrive among the groups and they will become more socially
distanced from each other. The out-group will become negatively stereotyped, and social distance between groups will increase. In
more practical terms, when one group perceives another as a threat to its goals or interests, it grows the aforementioned negative
emotions and accompanying social behaviour towards that group. Common goals or interests of note include but not limited to
economic resources, social status, group security, military might etc (Sherif et al., 1988; Hohman & Kuljian, 2021 ). The theory
further explains that the tendency for or severity of hostility can be effectively mitigated through the presence or introduction of
superordinate goals. According to Sherrif (1958:349-350), these are "goals which are compelling and highly appealing to members
of two or more groups in conflict, but which cannot be attained by the resources and energies of the groups separately. In effect, they
are goals attained only when groups pull together".

In the South African context, negative attitudes and behaviours toward foreigners are generally held to be in reaction to perceive
competition by the foreigners for increasingly constrained economic resources and opportunities (Gordon, 2015; Hewitt et al., 2020;
Tella, 2016). Thus, conforms perfectly to the propositions of the realistic conflict theory. This notion is supported by the fact that
most of the violent episodes of xenophobic reactions toward foreigners in the country are usually in communities where poverty and
structural unemployment are (Field, 2017; Hewitt et al., 2020).

Research and Methodology
To achieve the aim of assessing the impact of the pandemic on immigrant businesses in South Africa, primary data was collected
using an electronic questionnaire that was administered to 260 business owners in South Africa. Only 100 responded over a period
of about four months, and during the cleaning of the data, it was found that only 75 of the responses can be included in the analysis.
The data was cleaned and analysed using IBM SPSS version 27 by conducting descriptive and inferential statistical tests. The open-
ended question at the end of the questionnaire was thematically analysed, focusing on identifying the respondents' perspectives on
how they think the government could best assist them.

Demographics
Participants came from nine African countries, and their business locations included cities and towns located in at least four provinces
(Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, and Western Cape). This can be considered a good coverage and spread of African migrants
in the country (see Table 1).
Table 1: Participants' Demography

Nationalities of Location In South Africa Sector Registration status
respondents

Country % Town/City % % %
Cameroon 57.4 Bloemfontein 1.3 Service 52 Yes 61.3
Congo 2.7 Cape Town 65.3 Retail 34
Egypt 1.3 Durban 12.0 Manufacturing 11 No 38.7
Nigeria 17.3 Johannesburg 10.7 Wholesale 3
Somalia 2.7 Parys 2.7
Tanzania 2.7 Pretoria 4.0
Uganda 1.3 Randburg 1.3
Zimbabwe 17.3 Roodepoort 1.3
Winterton 1.3

Their major operating business sectors were service and retail, followed by manufacturing and a small proportion in wholesale.

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Ojugbele et al., International Journal of Research in Business & Social Science 11(6) (2022), 33-42

Figure 1: Participants’ business sector distribution
Impact of the pandemic on business operations

Figure 2: Impact of The Lockdown on Business Operations

Only 21.3% of the immigrant businesses were able to operate at a reduced scale during the lockdown, while the vast majority indicated
that they could not operate. It was found that 20% of the participating businesses fall within the category of declared essential
businesses.
Impact of the pandemic on business financials

Table 2 below shows the snapshot of the financial state of the businesses before and during the pandemic. It is obvious that the
majority of the businesses were better off before the pandemic, and that the pandemic have negative impacts on their finances.
Table 2: Financial Situation before and during lockdown

Statement Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly
Disagree Agree
% % % % %
I made more money during the lockdown period than 65.3 30.7 2.7 0.0 1.3
before it.
My business was not doing well before the lockdown 26.7 34.7 12 13.3 13.3
(Covid-19 pandemic)
The Covid-19 pandemic did not have any negative 58.7 30.7 1.3 6.7 2.7
impact on my business
I needed some financial support to keep my business 1.3 10.7 14.7 37.3 36.0
going

The responses indicate that the businesses suffered significant negative consequences and that their liquidity or financial sustainability
was also jeopardised.

Beneficiation from SA Government Covid bailouts
Although approximately 89% of the businesses reported that the pandemic had a very severe impact on their financial sustainability
and liquidity (as shown in Table 2), none of them reported that they benefited from any of the South African government business
support packages during the pandemic (see Table 3). Most of them reported that they did not apply because the qualifying conditions

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Ojugbele et al., International Journal of Research in Business & Social Science 11(6) (2022), 33-42

already excluded them despite some being part of the declared essential services during the pandemic Table 3. While few of the
businesses secured funds from banks (4%) and Non-Profit Organisations (2.7%), a combined 50.6% secured financial support from
their social network which comprises friends, family, and tribal associations.

Table 3: Benefit from government intervention

Statement Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly
Disagree Agree
% % % % %
I was aware that the South African government was 1.3 6.7 8 52 32
offering financial support to small businesses.
I applied for financial assistance from the government 29.3 45.3 16 6.7 2.7
I did not apply for financial assistance from the 6.7 14.7 16 40 22.7
government because I could not fulfill the condition
I received financial support from the South African 62.7 37.3 0.0 0.0 0.0
government

One thing that is worth noting about the businesses despite the apparent precariousness of their situation is their optimism and lack
of despondency. A good number of them believed that they would recover from the loss suffered as a result of the pandemic and its
attendant lockdown, only 28% outrightly disagree with the assertion. Figure 3 shows the respondents' responses to the statement "I
am positive that most of the small businesses affected by the Covid-19 pandemic are going to bounce back in no time".

Figure 3: Chart showing respondents’ perception of lockdown effect on business.
Basis of ‘funding’

While operating within the designated essential business categories did not qualify immigrant-owned businesses for government
bailout funds, it did for non-government funding. Cross tabulations showed that being within the declared essential business
categories has a statistically significant association with securing funding from both banks (p = 0.019) and NGOs (p = 0.003),
however, the business registration status did not (see Figure 3 for cross-tabulation results).
Table 4: Tests of association between being essential business and non-government funding
Financial support from my bank. Total
Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Chi-
Disagree square p-value
Business been Strongly N 31 4 2 1 38 24.182 0.019*
essential Disagree % 81.6% 10.5% 5.3% 2.6% 100.0%
Disagree N 10 10 1 0 21
% 47.6% 47.6% 4.8% 0.0% 100.0%
Neutral N 1 0 0 0 1
% 100.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 100.0%
Agree N 4 8 0 2 14
% 28.6% 57.1% 0.0% 14.3% 100.0%
Strongly N 0 1 0 0 1
Agree % 0.0% 100.0% 0.0% 0.0% 100.0%
Total N 46 23 3 3 75
% 61.3% 30.7% 4.0% 4.0% 100.0%

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Table 4 Cont’d
Financial support from my bank Total

Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Chi- p-value
Disagree square
Business been Strongly N 34 3 1 0 38 29.719 0.003*
essential Disagree % 89.5% 7.9% 2.6% 0.0% 100.0%
Disagree N 7 13 0 1 21
% 33.3% 61.9% 0.0% 4.8% 100.0%
Neutral N 0 1 0 0 1
% 0.0% 100.0% 0.0% 0.0% 100.0%
Agree N 5 8 0 1 14
% 35.7% 57.1% 0.0% 7.1% 100.0%
Strongly Agree N 1 0 0 0 1
% 100.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 100.0%
Total N N 25 1 2 75
% % 33.3% 1.3% 2.7% 100.0%

Discussion
The fact that the foreign own businesses must perpetually deal with the vagaries of xenophobic sentiments in addition to the liabilities
of smallness and foreignness earlier discussed paints a damning picture of fragility and avoidable frailty which has serious economic
consequences in a world wherein globalisation and other factors are driving an increase in the rate of migration. The impact of the
xenophobic hostilities becomes direr given that there was a spate of attacks not long before the emergence of the pandemic. Thus, it
can be said metaphorically that the immigrant-owned business community was "gasping for breathes' just before the pandemic. One
can then imagine how devastating the pandemic will be on this business sub-sector and how much any expression of help could have
been to the sector.
When viewed in light of the realistic threat theory, this study has a important policy implication for South African government in
terms of dealing with the foreigners-locals’ hostilities in the country. It was held that that intergroup conflict or any of its
manifestation and corollary can be mitigated by the introduction of superordinate goals which requires both (or all) groups to work
together. In this instance the overarching basis of conflict is economic resources in the face of unemployment and poverty. The real
solution lies in job creation and multi-level strengthening of the economy. This can be construed as superordinate goals which require
active participation of all groups and sections in the country, but the government failed to come to grasp with this as exemplified in
the system exclusion of immigrant owned business from the COVID-19 relief interventions. Conscious effort by the government to
make the economic and contributions of the migrant obvious to its populace will go a long way to ameliorate the palpable anti-
immigrant sentiments and its attendant consequences in the country

Conclusions
Immigrant-owned businesses constitute a significant portion of the small business sector, thus a sizable component of the country's
economy. Leaving them to suffer the impacts of the pandemic is simply akin to the neglect of a section of the economy, and that
comes with its attendant problems like job security of the local employees in those businesses and their impact on the supply and
demand side of their respective markets. All these will in turn aggravate the economic woes of the country, thus increased severity
of (perceived) competition by the immigrants and inadvertently leading to an increase in the level of anti-immigrants sentitiments
and hostility.

Finally, it must be noted that discrimination against immigrant-owned businesses based on their national origin is not only detrimental
to the economy, but akin to vaccine nationalism, which the South African government has been a leading critic of on the world stage.
We suggest that in the future in order not to set the country in a form of subtle ‘self-destruct’ mode and ensure balance and fairness
there is a need for more relaxed criteria in the administration of such interventions. The interventions and assistance should be open
to all registered businesses, and finally that legal and legitimate immigrants should be treated like indigenes in situations like this.

The primary limitation to the generalization of these results is the demography of the respondents. They are wholly small business
owners of African extractions with no non-African representation despite the significant presence of non-African actors in the
immigrant-owned business space in South Africa. This arise as a result of difficulty encountered in terms of data access since
businesses spaces where such people could be found easily were closed because of the lockdown. The same reason accounts for the
low response level that was experienced Efforts made to reach out to some of such business owners yielded no result.

Though previous research has not shown any significant difference between the experience of African and non-African migrant-
owned businesses in the country, it would have been nice to still capture their experience, especially in terms of the role of coethnic
social capital because of the cultural differences. Specific studies to capture and compare the role of coethnic social capital in such

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hectic times will be of good epistemological value given what has been documented in terms of coethnic support during the starting
phase of foreign-owned small businesses.

Acknowledgement
Author Contributions: Conceptualization, Methodology, Data Collection, Formal Analysis, Writing—Original Draft Preparation, Writing—Review
And Editing by authors with equal participation. All authors have read and agreed to the published the final version of the manuscript.
Institutional Review Board Statement: Ethical review and approval were waived for this study, due to that the research does not deal with
vulnerable groups or sensitive issues.
Data Availability Statement: The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly
available due to privacy.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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