This week we released Job Creators 2023: The foreign-born founders building our fastest-growing businesses. This may not be news to you. After all, among many other places it was featured in The Times, Sifted, Forbes, City AM, and directly with those in the know. The headline stat is one you’ll hear a lot more of: 39% of the UK’s fastest-growing companies have at least one foreign-born founder.
This is a follow-up to our original Job Creators report, which as I claim in Forbes, helped change the way people thought about immigration. I think reasonable people can disagree about various points around immigration, but our research proves beyond doubt that immigrants are the driving force behind many of the UK’s most innovative companies.
When we last looked at this data back in 2019, that figure was 49%. This raises the reasonable question that John Thornhill asks in Sifted: “Is the UK losing some of its pull for foreign founders?” For me, the answer is both yes and no: ‘yes’ because Brexit has ended free movement, which no visa can trump; ‘yes’ because some EU countries like France and Portugal have improved their offering for entrepreneurs; yet ‘no’ because the data shows that the UK still dwarfs other European countries in key areas like funding; and ‘no’ because the UK has become more open to talent from outside the EU, including through the High Potential Individual (HPI) visa.
At The Entrepreneurs Network we want even more reasons to say ‘no’ to John’s question. And we have ten ideas for doing exactly that. These include expanding the HPI visa and Youth Mobility Scheme, trialling a Global Talent Exam, copying the Canadian policy on H-1B visa holders, reviewing visa fees to ensure they are in line with other countries, and allowing applicants to make use of the fast-track option for free when the Home Office fails to meet its own estimated times for approving applications.
Read our Researcher Derin Koçer to learn more about the eye-watering fees: “Visas can cost nearly three times what they would in Australia, around 12 times in Canada and around 43 times what they would in Germany.” And read our Head of Research Eamonn Ives to know how we can copy Canada: “In July, the Canadian Government offered anyone with a lucrative US H-1B visa, which enables employers to hire foreign workers with specific skills to work in America for a specified period, the chance to apply to come north of the border with an open work permit for up to three years. The number was capped at 10,000 – which was duly filled within just two days of the scheme going live. In this way, Canada received an influx of highly skilled immigrants for virtually no effort at all, simply piggybacking off the bureaucracy of their American cousins.”
Returning to John’s question, if we’re going to be able to answer him properly – to understand if that 10-point drop is a blip or trend – we will need to expand the sample size and do it every year. If you want to partner with us on Job Creators 2024 – or know someone who does – now is the time to get in touch.
The 39%
We couldn’t have produced this report without Beauhurst. That 39% is based on their data, and it was their data that revealed the 49% back in 2019. It was also their data that first revealed the equity funding gap between female and male founders for our Female Founders Forum report, which pre-dated and inspired the Government’s review into female entrepreneurship. That’s why we’ve invited them to partner with us on this newsletter.
Ambassador's Reception
Sticking with the theme of migrants. Ahead of International Migrants Day on 18 December 2023, the charity IMIX and the International Organization of Migration have got in touch to see if migrants from our network might want to become Ambassadors.
Ambassadors will come from different walks of life in order to share stories about the migrant experience in the UK media. The individuals must be interested in learning more about speaking to the media and be happy to be named and pictured. They can be someone who recently moved to the UK or someone who moved decades ago, but who is happy to reflect on their experience over time. Successful applicants will be invited for a two-day residential (expenses paid), receive media and social media training, and feature in a film marking the day.
They would particularly like to highlight the role of people from a migrant background in business, innovation and the economy at large, as well as the additional bureaucratic hurdles they face. If you want to get involved, drop Julia Rampen an email.
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