Lydia Samuel

Refugee and Migrant Entrepreneurship: Rebuilding resilience post COVID-19

Our Entrepreneurship Lead, Lydia Samuel's latest report details the key issues affecting refugee and migrant businesses during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond. 

These are uncertain times for all businesses, but research shows that refugee and migrant led businesses are even more precarious. Read more to find out our recommendations for building resilience for these businesses...

Through our work and research into refugee and migrant entrepreneurship, we've found that businesses face blocked access to mainstream business support:

'Refugee and migrant business owners are renowned problem solvers, innovative and entrepreneurial by nature. Yet they still face blocked access to some mainstream support enabling start-up and growth. There is a slight shift change in this arena; however, some players are still slow to consider their responsibility.'

Blocked access to support has been compounded alongside the devastating effects of COVID-19 to the business community, hitting refugee and migrant led businesses particularly hard. We cannot afford to leave anyone behind in the economic recovery support post-lockdown.

In this report Lydia sets out recommendations for the business support community to widen their thinking and strategy to provide the support desperately needed to reboot refugee and migrant entrepreneurship post COVID-19.

Read the full report here:

Refugee and Migrant Businesses Report Cover

For more reading on the topic of economic resilience for refugee and migrant led businesses, see ACH CEO Fuad Mahamed's report: How to restart an inclusive economy post COVID-19

Do you run a small or medium sized business? For advice on where you can access support during the COVID-19 crisis, see this handbook: COVID-19: Business support and information also available in Somali.

If you have any further questions or queries, please contact Lydia Samuel on lydia.samuel@ach.org.uk