EP #384 - Seraina Soldner: Migrants in Switzerland & Social Impact Entrepreneurship
Mar 20, 2024
auto_awesome
Exploring social impact entrepreneurship for migrants in Switzerland, funding for SINGA, Swiss fear of failure, and knowing when to move on. Seraina Soldner shares insights on empowering refugees through entrepreneurship, eligibility criteria, challenges faced by migrants, risk-taking in Switzerland, and personal growth in career transitions. Discover innovative healthcare startups, facing fear, team dynamics, and personal reflections on motivation and career.
SINGA empowers refugees/migrants through entrepreneurship
Migros Pioneer Fund supports social impact projects long-term
Embrace risks, prioritize authenticity in decision-making for social impact
Deep dives
Responding to Host Country as a Refugee
If she were to become a refugee, she would want people in her host country to see her as a person with skills and something to offer, engage her in helping and connecting her to others in the community.
Team Player Status
She identifies as a team player who requires creative space, leaning more towards a visionary role than a follower.
Morning Preference
She leans towards being a night owl rather than an early bird, finding her peak productivity during the nighttime.
Career Change Reflection
Serena wishes she had taken more risks when younger, been bolder, cared less about others' opinions, embraced risks earlier, and prioritized authenticity in her decision-making.
Morning Inspiration
Her motivation stems from working with people, collaborating, finding solutions to problems, and focusing on problem-solving drives her.
29:42 - Does the world share the Swiss fear of failure?
42:57 - Knowing when to move on
About Seraina Soldner:
Seraina Soldner is the co-founder and former co-director of SINGA Switzerland, an incubator for projects built by people with a refugee or migrant experience, and currently a project manager at Hospital at Home Verein (hospitales). She holds an MA in International Affairs with a focus on International Law from the Geneva Graduate Institute and previously worked for Justice Rapid Response in Geneva, the UN Refugee Agency in Malta and the Munich Refugee Council before starting SINGA’s Swiss chapter in 2016.
SINGA is a unique incubator with the purpose to enhance entrepreneurial skills and provide a local network for people with a refugee or migrant experience. They also support them in achieving access to the Swiss labor market by running a variety of start up and mentoring programs. 25% of participants found a business/an association and 100% of participants feel more part of Swiss society after participating. The SINGA programs were made possible by the Migros Pioneer Fund, part of the social commitment of the Migros Group. The first SINGA organization was founded in 2012 in Paris.
The Migros Pioneer Fund is a voluntary development fund of the Migros Group companies. It was founded as the Migros Commitment Development Fund in 2012 and has since been actively scouting and promoting projects with a long-term benefit to society, and financially supporting them for between three and five years.