The Centre’s director, Matt Smith, writes in the Huffington Post about our research on refugee entrepreneurship.
British history is littered with examples of entrepreneurial success that are now household names in our everyday lives. What we’ve found is that refugees all share the virtues of courage, resilience and determination – key traits required by any entrepreneur. Some are naturally entrepreneurial and have previous experience. For others, the experience of escaping from their home country, persevering through the asylum process, then facing discrimination in the labour market intensifies their entrepreneurial capabilities and pushes them towards self-employment.
For all these reasons, it is imperative we no longer waste refugees’ potential. In our report, ‘Starting afresh: How entrepreneurship is transforming the lives of resettled refugees’, we call on government to work with business and the third sector to create a new strategy, where entrepreneurship will be accessible to all interested newcomers.
Read the full article here