We have three different business programs we offer these entrepreneurs to support them, from a pre-incubator focusing on prototyping all the way up to a bespoke targeted program that helps people get access marketing support, legal support and finance.

TERN entrepreneurs can also access our general community membership, and this gives them access to drop-in advice sessions, entrepreneur socials, and something that’s actually really overlooked in mainstream incubators called resilience support, which is support with other areas of their life that aren’t necessarily business related but are affecting their business progress. For many of the entrepreneurs I work with, this includes language learning support, help with employability skills, getting into better work and also support with unstable housing situations and housing bids. Mental health is also a really big one, so a large part of my role has been overseeing that as well as bringing new entrepreneurs into TERN’s community. Now we’ve grown a lot, we have a community of over 300 businesses, and we have hundreds of amazing mentors, advisors, and volunteers who are all part of our community too, and they really are there to give one-on-one advice sessions. A lot of them have specialist industry sectors or business skills that they want to share with a refugee entrepreneur and TERN could not exist without them. We work with so many different businesses in so many different sectors that we really need this expertise that goes beyond just our core team.

Another part of my role has been coordinating the onboarding of these volunteers, making sure they’re matched with the right entrepreneur and connecting up the community across all of that. Also, we are growing our champions network, which is another really interesting project that we have because we want to be 51% refugee led by 2025. We now have 30 refugee founders who work with TERN in paid part-time roles, and they really lead workshops, events and reaching out to the community to engage new entrepreneurs who might want to join us. Working to onboard them to their roles is probably one of the most exciting parts of my job actually, seeing them emerge as future leaders is really cool.

Speaking about the entrepreneurs themselves, what obstacles uniquely impact refugees and interfere with them in establishing their own enterprises and businesses.

I guess I will speak specifically in the context of the UK, because while some of these projects and issues apply internationally, my experience is really within the UK. The reason TERN exists is because newcomers here face a very hostile environment that limits their potential and holds them back. Receiving refugee status at the end of their asylum claim involves a very destructive asylum process which sees around 50% of applicants waiting over six months for a decision. I can say I’ve worked with people who’ve waited over 15 years for a response. Even once that claim has been processed and they receive their status and have the right to work, they also still face economic discrimination. There are much higher unemployment rates amongst UK refugee communities.

The UK average is around 5%, but in the refugee communities I work with that rises to around 24%. In our last cohort for an incubator program, over 60% of people were highly qualified but unemployed or very underemployed.

There’s a pool of talent, potential, new ideas and people who really want to be self-reliant, but because of the system that’s currently in place, we fail to transform this potential and this community faces higher unemployment and destitution rates than the rest of the country. Starting a business is definitely not the only solution to this, but it can really address some of the barriers I’ve mentioned. It can help people overcome the unfavourable job market and integrate them into a new society. On the other hand, it also brings new ideas and cultural capital from other places and a new perspective to the UK. It has both economic and social benefits, and it can build really strong commercial and personal connections between local communities and change perceptions and narratives around refugees arriving here.

Personally, I’ve seen it increase their self-reliance and confidence as well when they feel that they’re contributing to their local community, but once they reach the point of developing a business and identifying as an entrepreneur, some barriers are really unique to their situation. One of the most typical ones is that it’s difficult for them to access mainstream finance, and they also find it hard to focus on business growth because they might struggle to access technology for example. A lot of our community don’t have a laptop or a stable Wi-Fi connection, so they’re trying to work on their phone. They may also be in an unstable housing situation, so registering a business is a really common issue we run into. Then there’s financial instability as well, which is an ongoing challenge that I’ve been working on quite a bit over the last few years.

Once funds like that are created for these founders, it will place more pressure on traditional banks and VCs to prioritise diversity inclusion and businesses from these groups of founders.

I really think we have to see changes within the panels that make these funding decisions, so they need to be less homogenous. We need to have better representation, and for me personally I think that includes refugee founders. They need to be welcomed into funding spaces and there’s just so much work that still needs to be done around that internationally being linked up. I see very small pockets of it, and it’s exciting to see that network grow, but there’s a long way to go.

What are some organisations that you believe are creating a strong social impact?

It’s a really hard question because there are hundreds that I work with every day! It feels almost unfair to shine a spotlight on a couple, but there are some I think in the UK context that stand out for me, and they’re grassroots organisations who often get overlooked. There’s one here in London called Breadwinners, and they’re just a really brilliant social enterprise who employ refugees and give asylum seekers in their first work experience to sell bread on market stalls. Then, in the backend of their operations, they have an online food business as well, which is selling bread and pastries. It’s just a very simple model, but they run it in such a friendly, welcoming and open way that I’m always so happy to refer people to them for work experience, because they’re just brilliant local people. I would say internationally there’s a really brilliant network called Startups Without Borders, and they are a great partner to work with.

They host international conferences and are really trying to connect up refugee founders from countries all over the world. They’re based across Italy and Egypt at the moment, but they’re just a great connector.

If you’re looking for information about the sector or these businesses, that’s a really great place to start. There are a couple of organisations as well who are specifically supporting refugee women from disadvantaged communities who I really try and give a shout out to. One specifically is Give Your Best, and they’re a charity who’ve created an online catalogue of donated clothes, and refugee women who for example might be going to a pitch evening or a job interview can go online and shop their catalogue of clothing for free. This is also great to donate to if you have work clothing that you’re not using anymore! Then finally, Luminary Bakery, who again are UK based, run cafes and employability courses for women who have faced multiple disadvantages who want to get into hospitality or catering. They train and support them, and also, they just make incredible cakes. I always recommend people looking for birthday and wedding cakes to go straight there.

To finish off now, what books or resources would you recommend to our listeners?

Definitely in terms of a lived experience author, I would recommend The Lightless Sky. It’s written by a man called Gulwali Passarlay, and he’s a long-time friend of TERN. It tells a story of his journey to the UK and his time here since then. He’s achieved some amazing things, but I won’t ruin it for you.

That’s one book that you should definitely read for yourself and just be amazed at his beautiful writing, but also just the humanity he brings to that experience.

I also recently read a really interesting book by Sue Lloyd Roberts called The War On Women, and she was a brilliant video journalist who basically travelled around the world. During her travels, she documented all her interactions with women in very different and difficult situations. They were facing up to war, persecution, other atrocities, and she has a chapter on FGM, and she meets a different person in each country through her work and writes a chapter with them. It’s really about their stories of fighting back, standing up and the impact they can make in their communities. That was a book that really impacted me and my life, so I definitely recommend that for a read.