It’s an old boys’ club’: the making of alternative forms of business support for migrant and refugee entrepreneurs in the UK

Villares-Varela, Maria and Low, Carolynn (2023) It’s an old boys’ club’: the making of alternative forms of business support for migrant and refugee entrepreneurs in the UK. BSA Annual Conference 2023: Sociological Voices in Public Discourse, Manchester, United Kingdom. 12 - 14 Apr 2023. (In Press)

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

The increasingly extensive research on migrant and refugee entrepreneurship has demonstrated an enduring disconnection between the needs of migrant and refugee entrepreneurs to set up and grow their businesses and business support offerings. The scarce business support available has been reduced even further in post-2010 Britain due to the cuts implemented as part of the austerity measures. In addition, mainstream is at times perceived by migrant and refugee entrepreneurs as catering mainly to the white, middle-class male future business leaders. Drawing on three case studies in the form of vignettes, we argue in this chapter that this lacuna of business support has been filled by alternative sources of knowledge-sharing and skills-building opportunities such as community mentoring networks, informal/social networks, churches, charities, and self-made strategies, against the backdrop of neoliberal (post)austerity Britain. By engaging in debates on migrant entrepreneurship and business support, we illustrate how shifts in the support provision feed further fragmentation and unequal access to resources for vulnerable groups whilst simultaneously fostering the emergence of new support networks across different communities.

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