[Idiom] Set up shop

[Jellybeans8]

Hi All,
The context is "xxx refugee camp mushrooms as Chinese set up shopWith entrepreneurial zeal, Chinese have – with their own or borrowed money – set up shop in the camp.

Does the expression "Set up shop" mean "A term used when somebody camps or stays unwanted in a location for a prolonged period of time." or "to establish a business or an organization" ?

Thanks in advance

 

[JMurray]

not a teacher

In the example you've given it seems that "set up shop" should be taken literally, meaning that the Chinese have established businesses in the camp.

However, the phrase can be used figuratively in many contexts to mean staying in one place for a prolonged period, or establishing a position.

The visiting team was clearly dominant and set up shop in the opposition's half for most of the game.
Larvae and grubs can also set up shop in ecological niches adults can't reach. (newscientist.com)

 

[SoothingDave]

"Entrepreneurial" is a pretty big clue.

 

[Jellybeans8]

Is it possible that you start a business when you are a refugee?

 

[SoothingDave]

Sure, why not?

 

[JMurray]

not a teacher

Is it possible that you start a business when you are a refugee?

The business might just deal in small items of food, cigarettes or other day-to-day commodities, it's still a business.

 

[emsr2d2]

It depends on your definition of a refugee. If you are talking about displaced people, living in tents in UN camps and who mostly have nothing but the clothes on their back, then setting up a shop is unlikely.

If you're an asylum seeker or a recognised refugee in a Western country, then you have a home and are allowed to work. If you choose to open a shop then you can.

 

[Tdol]

Is it possible that you start a business when you are a refugee?

Yes, it is- refugee camps have commodities like the supplies that arrive, so market forces can work, whether money or barter is used. In the refugee camps after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, there was a market for pages taken from the Bibles that missionaries distributed because the paper could be used to make cigarettes.