Migrant Business Support Project, South West and West Midlands, England, United Kingdom
MIGRANTS
The Migrant Business Support Project offered resettlement and integration support for newly arrived communities. The project was funded by the Asylum Migration Integration Fund (AMIF) and implemented by ACH (a housing and integration support provider that provides tailored support to migrants), in partnership with The Growth Hub at the West of England Combined Authority (an organisation that provides tailored business development support and expert guidance to small and medium-sized businesses) and the School for Policy Studies and Migration Mobilities Bristol Specialist Research Institute at the University of Bristol. The project aimed to support 850 immigrants from January 2021 – December 2023 in launching, stabilising and growing their businesses in the South West and West Midlands of England (United Kingdom). The support included individually tailored, and participants were accompanied by a specialist support provider who helped to bridge the gap between refugees and business support.
Refugees and migrants often see entrepreneurship as a way to generate income for their families and to develop autonomy in their new environment. Many entrepreneurs with migrant backgrounds face difficulties in starting and scaling their businesses, including limited access to finance, language barriers, limited networks, and lack of knowledge and confidence in approaching mainstream business support organisations. Moreover, mainstream support programmes often do not prioritise refugee and migrant businesses or directly address their unique needs. Since 2008, ACH has been supporting the development of migrant-led businesses through offering business support services in addition to other integration support services, notably as demand has increased in recent years for support services for refugee and migrant entrepreneurs.
The programme was available Birmingham, Solihull, Bristol and South Gloucestershire. In using a collaborative approach, the project was implemented by multiple stakeholders that provided specialist knowledge and support in their respective fields. For example, the Growth Hub experts focus on business advice and support. Moreover, the ACH has expertise in resettlement and integration, including through lived experience as the ACH was founded and is primarily staffed by people with migrant backgrounds. For example, more than 50% of the staff are from a refugee or migrant background. Evidence suggests that including people from the target background group in the design and implementation of the programme have positive impacts on programme support (i.e. support address the unique needs of the target group), higher levels of trust and confidence by participants, and higher buy-in and take-up of the support in part due to higher levels of community engagement and outreach. Proactive engagement with the community and raising awareness of the Migrant Business Support Project led to more than 550 migrant entrepreneurs finding and participating in the programme.
The programme aimed to address the unique needs of participants by actively involving them in the design and delivery of the programme, namely through focus groups for different community groups. Workshops were facilitated by an Enterprise Facilitator and often focused on navigating the local business support service system for starting a business. Additional capacity building workshops were also offered including some that were refugee-led. The programme also included an online platform dedicated to providing business start-up support in adapted language (i.e. simplified English as well as other languages) so that materials and resources were accessible to participants.
Participants received one-to-one support through an Enterprise Facilitator to ensure that they received support tailored to their individual needs. While start-up support was the primary focus, Enterprise Facilitators also helped participants access additional supports such as housing, mental health and translation services. Mentoring and networking opportunities were offered through the programme. The project used a 360 feedback loop (i.e. circular feedback framework) to support participants. The approach began with participants receiving business support from their Enterprise Facilitators with the aim that participants return after successfully starting their businesses to be mentors for the future participants.
The School for Policy Studies and the Migrant Mobilities Bristol Specialist Research Institute at the University of Bristol supported the project through research and academics focusing migration and policy. This included evaluating the programme and disseminating impact assessments including recommendations and best practices to policy makers, stakeholders and refugee support organisations
The programme was initially planned to run for two years but the programme was extended until the end of 2023. Overall, the programme intentionally did not focus programme impact measurement on “hard outcomes” (e.g. starting a business) as business creation following a programme can take time, especially for newly arrived migrants who have additional barriers and challenges to social and economic integration. Post-programme evaluation, therefore, included qualitative questions such as “do you feel confident approaching banks/business support organisations for grants/loans since receiving support”. Many participants reported increased levels of confidence and knowledge of how to navigate their entrepreneurial journey and integration. However, some quantitative outcomes have been measured by the programme. Between January 2021 and December 2022, the programme provided entrepreneurship support to 552 immigrants, among whom 51 progressed their business from an idea to a start-up. By the end of the programme in March 2023, 649 people had participated in the programme. One-in-ten participants were employed full-time and 10% of participants had part-time employment.
Following the conclusion of the Migrant Business Support Project, the ACH launched a new inclusive entrepreneurship support programme dedicated to refugee and migrant entrepreneurs. The Green Growth Accelerator Project, which is funded by the National Lottery Community Fund (organisation that provides grants to organisations that are improving their communities), aims to provide refugee and migrant entrepreneurs with entrepreneurship support to grow their businesses. Through this scheme, ACH offers micro-loans to migrant businesses.
For more information, please see Singleton, A., Lutz, R. L., & Salmon, U. (2023), Refugee and Migrant Business Support: Working Towards Best Practice, https://ach.org.uk/sites/default/files/2023-07/ACH%20MBS%20REPORT%20FINAL%20DRAFT.pdf.
University of Bristol (2024), Migrant Business Support Project (2023).