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Migrants are some of Britain’s most enterprising people, according to an recent article in the London Times, which looks at the 250,000 ethnic businesses that contribute £15bn a year to the economy. Statistics show that those who have arrived to work in Britain frequently lead the way in entrepreneurship.
The Times article refers to a report on global entrepreneurship, published by the London Business School, which has found that non-white people are 40% more likely than whites to be entrepreneurs; Indian and Pakistani Britons are twice as likely as their white counterparts to follow that route.
The Department of Trade and Industry’s Ethnic Minority Business Forum estimates that the UK’s 250,000 ethnic minority businesses contribute £15 billion a year to the economy.
And a study published last summer by Barclays Bank showed that the number of Black and Minority Ethnic (dubbed BME) start-ups had reached record levels, growing by more than a third to hit 50,000 new businesses in 2004 — 11% of all business start-ups.
The Times article observes that Britain has long been reliant on the entrepreneurial spirit of immigrants. Companies such as Marks & Spencer, the retailer, and NM Rothschild and Cazenove in the City have their origins overseas.
Susie Symes, director of the Museum of Immigration and Diversity is quoted as saying: “The very experience of dislocation and exile can be a powerful force for innovation. London is a leading player in the world’s financial markets in large part because of the bankers and financiers who came here as immigrants.”
The museum, tucked away in a side street in east London in a house built almost 300 years ago as a residence for a wealthy Huguenot silk trader, has witnessed the influence of successive waves of immigrants on the British economy.
The Times observes that what is true of Brick Lane in London is also true of Pollokshields in Glasgow and Manchester’s “Curry Mile” in Rusholme — all areas where ethnic minorities have congregated and flourished.
According to the paper, academics believe the success of BME businesses is partly due to their ability to draw on their families and communities for labour and capital.
Drawing on the support and resources of the community, known as social capital, is a common theme in ethnic enterprises. Richard Robert, small and medium enterprise research director at Barclays, compares it to an old-boys’ network.
“Ethnic minorities can live in quite closed communities with very strong links between family members or geographical areas,” he told the paper, “this has a networking effect and those who are good networkers tend to be more entrepreneurial.”
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