Business startup support in West Yorkshire: A focus on aspiring migrant women entrepreneurs

The work presented in this report builds on the outcomes of the project ‘Migrant Women in Business’, run between Nov. 2023 – Aug. 2024 – funded by West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) as part of the Government Call for Start Up Projects across West Yorkshire. The project is led by Migration Yorkshire in partnership with Leeds University Business School, The Entrepreneurial Refugee Network (TERN), and Skylight Ventures.

Through the developmental work presented in this report, the importance of migrant businesses to the UK economy, alongside the need to further support and enhance it is highlighted. The entrepreneurial capacity of Ethnic minority businesses in the UK as a whole is represented through 250,000 Ethnic minority businesses contributing to around £25 billion per annum to the UK economy – as indicated in a recent report by the Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship ‘Time to Change’ (2022). With regards to the Total entrepreneurial activity of immigrants in comparison to the UK’s life-long resident population, migrants also present with high entrepreneurial potential and are three times more likely to start their own business.

The project ‘Migrant Women in Business’ capitalises on the potential of migrant businesses by focusing on migrant women in the West Yorkshire region. Through this focus, the project aims to (1) Explore the business startup journeys of migrant women, (2) Offer comprehensive business startup support for aspiring migrant women entrepreneurs, (3) Investigate the business support available for migrant women in West Yorkshire, including the main challenges and gaps in provision, (4) Propose potential ways to minimise the challenges facing business startup support.