THE DIASPORIC EXPERIENCES OF 1st GENERATION MIGRANT BLACK AFRICAN WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN BRITAIN Thomas Domboka, Leeds Metropolitan University, [email protected]

The migration history of black Africans into Britain is fairly recent and these new migrants came for various reasons. Many of them have settled in the country and a growing number of their women are involved in nascent entrepreneurial activities. When these migrants set up business, they have met with various challenges which can be traced back to the manner in which they migrated. Some of the challenges have been as a result of their demographic and entrepreneurial characteristics which are shaped by culture and tradition and these affect the type of businesses they started and their motivation for starting those businesses. This paper argues that the combination of their migration history, their demographic profile and the influence of culture has influenced the experiences of these women, the type of businesses and their perception of entrepreneurship with the majority of them having been pulled than pushed into business.

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Introduction There is scarcity of literature focusing on the experiences of black African people’s economic activities in Britain in general and women in particular (Bradley and Boles, 2003; Dawe and Fielden, 2005) and “Studies of ethnic minority entrepreneurship in the UK have overwhelmingly concentrated on the three main ethnic groups, namely South Asians, Chinese and the Indians” (Kwong et al., 2009 p264). The exclusion in entrepreneurial studies of the activities of the black African migrant women has contributed to our lack of knowledge of their experiences in the host country. Based on empirical evidence from the ongoing study, this paper discusses the experiences of black African women entrepreneurs who migrated to Britain in the last decade referred to in the paper as 1st generation migrants. The study was inspired by the unprecedented inflow of migrants from third world countries like Africans into Europe particularly Britain in the last decade. This new wave of migration has been for various reasons such as economic migration, asylum, employment and study. Many of the new migrants have found the conditions in the host country not as they had anticipated with some being victims of the harsh labor market conditions and some opting to go into selfemployment. It is the experiences of those women who decided to go into self-employment that is the focus of the study which considers four aspects namely; their experiences of migration, their demographic profile, their entrepreneurial characteristics and the motivational factors that pulled or pushed them into business. The aim of this paper is to explore the experiences the new migrants have had of starting business in a foreign country and the impact those experiences have on the ability of the new migrants to set up business. The second aim of the paper is to provide descriptive data on the demographics profiles and entrepreneurial characteristics of the black African migrant female entrepreneurs in Britain and how they are likely to influence those experiences. The objective is to explore the impact of the combination of the migration history, demographic profiles and entrepreneurial characteristics of these women have on their motivation to start business, the type of businesses, and the experiences they have of managing those businesses.

Preliminary findings from the study suggest that the transient nature of their original migration and the challenges the women encountered in acquiring settlement status affected their ability to start business and the experiences they had of starting and sustaining their businesses. The women are either domestic or conventional entrepreneurs whose family 2

values and perceptions about family and business influenced the type of businesses they started or how they manage those businesses. The women were pulled and not pushed into starting their own businesses. In the next sections, I explore what is currently known, followed by preliminary empirical findings, the implications of the findings, limitations to the study and conclusions to be drawn and suggestion for future research agenda.

Literature Review This section provides the theoretical framework underpinning the study and sets the context on which the findings and analyses will be discussed. It considers three elements of the black African women entrepreneurs namely; migration history, characteristics of the entrepreneurs and the push pull theories in entrepreneurship motivation. Uunderstanding of the migration history of Black Africans is important in the study as helps to explain how this impacts on their attitude toward business, their motivations and the challenges that they may encounter as noted by Barrett et al,. (2002) when they said of the immigration status of new migrants that, “...in itself a key determinant of whether self-employment is viable or even possible as a career choice” (p11). Understanding the entrepreneurial characteristics of the entrepreneurs helps to explain how those personal characteristics influences their entrepreneurial orientation and experiences they have of running their businesses and balance business and family, while the pull/push theories in entrepreneurship motivation provides an understanding of what and how personal circumstances might have influenced the women in the study to start business. Migration history Post- independence Africa has maintained close ties economically, politically, linguistically and culturally with its former colonial power and this relationship has remained and grown stronger through membership of the Commonwealth – a grouping of the UK and most of its former colonies. This relationship created privileges for travel, study, work and business (Shimeles, 2010). It is out of these special relationships that many of the migrants from subSahara Africa find the UK a favored destination. The Nigerians and Ghanaians were among the first Black Africa migrants to come in their numbers in the late 60s and 70s. This was sparked by post-independence political instability in countries like Uganda, Ghana, Somalia, Angola in Eastern and Central parts of Africa (Zeleza, 2002; Daley, 1998). The migration of the 1970s by the Nigerians was also a result of the boom in the oil industry in that country which made it affordable for them to come and study in the UK. A high proportion of them remained in the country through marriages (Dailey, 1998). Dailey also notes that, “... the first 3

arrivals fared better, often being granted full refugee status, and were better equipped educationally and economically” (p1705) unlike those who arrived in later years. BaycanLevent and Nijkamp (2009) classified the flow of migrants into the UK into four categories namely; labour (or economic) migration, family re-unification (for those coming as dependants), illegal entry (especially those coming via mainland Europe), and asylum seekers. In addition to those, students and expatriate professionals have been the other categories of migrants finding their way into the UK in more recent years. Stalker, (2002) and Zimmermann, (2005) on the other hand identified four different phases of immigration into Europe as; post-world war II immigration of the late 40s and 50s, labour migration of the 50s and the early 70s, restrained migration to the mid- 80s, and asylum migration and most of the migrants at that time were men. The new wave of migrants in the 90s and the beginning of the 21st century which included large numbers of women has been necessitated by high expectations that Britain the ‘Mother Country’ (Bryan et al., 1985, p.2) would provide them with relief from poverty (hence the increased numbers of economic migrants), war and political instability (resulting in the increase in the number of refugees and asylum claimants), though some continued to come for study purposes. Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa have experienced wars, civil conflict and political unrest since the 1990s and they have been the source of asylum applications to the UK. The increase in asylum claims coincided with the increase in the rate of migration before changes in the immigration rules were introduced in order to curb the inflow of migrants from outside the European Union (EU). Apart from student and asylum driven migration in the early part of the 21st century, there was also a big increase in economic migrants from Africa coming in search of better opportunities and as a means of escape from poverty, joblessness, better salaries and standards of living and this form of migration also peaked in 2002. It is the increase in the migration of women at the start of the 21st century which is the focus of this paper. Entrepreneurial characteristics of the women Due to lack of literature that focuses on the characteristics of black African migrant women, the typology developed by Geoffe and Scase (1985) will be used to analyse the characteristics of these women. Previous studies have suggested that women share a number of characteristics for instance, they are more likely than men to operate their businesses from home on a part-time basis (Marlow, et al., 2009), and their businesses operate in less 4

profitable sectors like the services sector (Carter and Marlow, 2007). They have limited business networks (Fraser, 2005; Harding, 2006), and as a result of a combination of these characteristics, their businesses are considered as lacking credibility. Geoffe and Scase (1985) came up with analyses of women entrepreneurship in which they saw self-employment and business ownership patterns among female entrepreneurs mirroring the way in which employment within the whole economy was spread. They (Ibid) developed a typology which they used to distinguish between women entrepreneurs and used as a way of demonstrating the different characteristics they possessed and how they influence their approach to business. The typology will be used in this paper to explain the characteristics of the African migrant women in business. In the typology, women are distinguished from each other based on the extent to which they subscribe to and show attachment the traditional gender roles compared to their attachment to entrepreneurship ideals. As Geoffe and Scase puts it, it is ‘the extent to which they [women] are prepared to accept conventionally defined male-female relationship” (p54), and for those women who accept the conventional gender role, they will subordinate themselves to the men. The women who subscribe to the traditional gender roles show commitment to both their gender roles in the home, and entrepreneurial ideals. Geoffe and Scase refer to such women as Conventional entrepreneurs. Mirchandani (1999) suggests that by accepting women’s subordinate role to men, they are prepared to work long hours in order to fulfil the often conflicting demands of their domestic and entrepreneurial responsibilities. They run their businesses in a way that is compatible with their domestic obligations. Geoffe and Scase suggests that the conventional women start their businesses in sectors like catering, running care home or agencies, restaurants, guest houses, cleaning, and hairdressing among others as these are associated with traditional female roles which they have always performed. The Innovative entrepreneurs on the other hand show more commitment to their entrepreneurial roles and less commitment to the conventional gender roles associated with women. These women are highly committed to entrepreneurial ideals but reject the notion of gender roles. They are motivated by the desire to grow their businesses and make a profit and regard their business above their personal lives which is secondary to their business lives. These women according to Geoffe and Scase are likely not to be married and they do not have much of a social life. They are often highly educated and have worked in large organizations were they have experienced male domination and prejudices and try to fulfil 5

their career ambitions through self-employment. They run businesses in areas such as market research, advertising and public relations among others. This analysis suggests that they are ‘pulled’ into self-employment by the big profits they aim to get. The third type of women entrepreneurs are what Geoffe and Scase referred to as Domestic traders who focus more on their domestic roles and show less commitment to their entrepreneurial roles (Mirchandani, 1999). When a conflict arises between their domestic and entrepreneurial responsibilities, the domestic traders will forgo their entrepreneurial duties in order to satisfy their domestic responsibilities. These are women who have a strong attachment to the traditional female roles and limited attachment to entrepreneurial ideals. They regard their business to be secondary to their domestic life and they enter into selfemployment in order to achieve self-autonomy. When they start their businesses, they operate in areas such as beauty care, dressmaking handicraft and other professions which do not require a great deal of skill. Most of these women are married and have given up their careers in order to start a family. These women according to Geoffe and Scase are not career women and they are regarded as middle class women who are well educated and married to managerial level men. They use entrepreneurship as a means to practice their skills or natural talents while at the same time having a sense of self-autonomy and self-fulfilment. The fourth type of woman is referred to by Geoffe and Scase as the Radical entrepreneurs. These women have less commitment to both the conventional gender role and entrepreneurship ideals. They are the opposite of the “conventional” entrepreneur as they are not committed to anything and they are unlike the other types of women who show commitment to either the conventional gender roles or the entrepreneurial ideas. These women have low attachment to both the entrepreneurial ideals and to conventional female roles. They according to Geoffe and Scase are most likely to be university graduates who have somehow suffered from male prejudices in their working lives and they see entrepreneurship as a means out of those male prejudices and dominance. Their businesses are not motivated by the desire to make profit but rather as social enterprises with commitment to advance the interests of women as they are influenced by the feminist ideologies and see themselves as part of the feminist movement. Geoffe and Scase (1985) have suggested that women can grow their businesses by reducing their attachment to the conventional gender role and adopting the masculine work norm, an 6

approach Marlow (2002) saw as the representation of women as “blemished men who must be assisted to become honorary men’(page 83), and Marlow and Carter (2004) considered as ‘a tendency to treat women as a universal term denoting an undifferentiated group who engage with specific areas of enterprise that reflect traditional female occupation’ (p14). As a result of the differences in their orientation towards business and family, Geoffe and Scase see women who have high commitment towards their entrepreneurial ideals and conventional gender roles as establishing businesses which are an extension of their domestic chores while women who have greater commitment to their entrepreneurial ideals establish business in areas like market research and advertising which require technical skills. Mirchandani (1999) however considers Geoffe and Scase’s typology of women entrepreneurs as masculinizing the feminist and entrepreneurial ideals and saw this as an attempt to define the extent to which female entrepreneurs adhere to their socially constructed gender roles. Allen and Truman (1993) were also critical of Geoffe and Scase’s work by urging that whichever category they (female entrepreneurs) fell in, was not by choice but due to circumstances. Carter and Cannon (1992) however supported the categorizations made by Geoffe and Scase and added that the typology showed the heterogeneity of women entrepreneurs. Kovalainen (1995) re-classified these typologies into two broad categories namely the ‘unemployed’ women who were driven or pushed by economic necessity and the ‘takeovers’, who saw entrepreneurship as a career progression following a period of employment. All these arguments suggest that women entrepreneurs are heterogeneous based on social class/background, ethnicity, age, etc. and we cannot easily make generalizations based on the study of one group of women and hence, the current study on black African women. The analyses help to provide the context upon which the black African women entrepreneurs can be analysed. The push-pull theories in entrepreneurial motivation Some early literature on business ownership by black and ethnic minority groups has suggested that they are pushed into self-employment due to limited opportunities on the labour market (Ram and Jones, 1998) while others suggested that ethnic specific cultural resources contributed to the desire by some Black and Minority Ethnic groups to go into selfemployment (Song, 1997; Webner, 1980). According to the pull/push theory, individuals enter into self-employment due to positive “pull” and negative “push” factors (Brush, 1992; Orhan and Scott, 2001; Still, 2005; Van der Boon, 2005). Orham and Scott (2001) posited 7

that starting a business is ‘driven by two opposite factors of choice and necessity according to the relative importance of the push and pull factors (p233). The terms ‘pull’ and ‘push’ were first used in reference to entrepreneurial motivation since the 1980s (Kirkwood, 2009) and the suggestion that push and pull factors can be used to explain the reasons behind ethnic minority women’s decision to enter into self-employment has since then dominated research on the behaviour of Black and Minority Ethnic groups. Marlow (2002) suggested that inequalities in the labour market pushed Black and Minority Ethnic people into selfemployment whilst entrepreneurial rewards monetary or non-monetary pulled them into selfemployment. Dissatisfaction with their jobs or lack of employment opportunities compared to men with the associated “glass ceiling” which refers to the invisible barriers faced by women, prevents them from advancing in their careers and other negative labour market experiences (Mattis, 2004; Hisrich and Brush, 1983; Geoffe and Scase, 1985; Boorah and Hart, 1999), push women into starting their own businesses. Morgan (1997) saw this as a reflection of patriarchal nature of society and gender assumptions in which masculinity is associated with management and leadership, and activities that seek to exclude women through ‘old boys’ networks’ or ‘locker room’ deals in which business deals are struck in pubs and in football pitches are evident (Patterson and Mavin, 2009). Several other researchers (Hughes, 2003, Granger et al. 1995, and Cohen and Mallon, 1999) have used the concept of ‘pull’ and ‘push’ factors to describe entrepreneurial motivations particularly among ethnic minority entrepreneurs. They all concur to varying degrees that female entrepreneurs are either pushed or pulled by different factors into self-employment. The push factors includes economic difficulties resulting in more women becoming unemployed (Granger et al. 1995) whereas others are pulled by factors such as the desire for independence. Hisrich and Brush (1985) further suggests that females from upper and middle class family are motivated by pull factors compared to females from lower classes who are motivated by push factors. According to Scott (1986), there are gender differences in starting a business with more men likely to be pulled (e.g. wanting to be their own bosses) and most women being likely to be pushed (e.g. by personal circumstances). However, Shabbir and DiGregorio (1996) found that Pakistani women start businesses from an entrepreneurial objective suggesting they are pulled than pushed into self-employment. According to Clark and Drinkwater(2009), age, marital status, presence of dependent children in the household, education, region, housing tenure, long-term illness and whether UK born are important factors in individuals’ decisions to become self-employed. As mentioned earlier, push factors are characterized by personal or 8

external factors and they often have negative connotations. Kirkwood (2009) found push factors to be more prevalent than pull factors for both sexes. Light and Rosenstein (1995) have challenged the notion that labour market conditions or lack of employment opportunities as the major reasons why individuals start their own businesses. They have instead argued that people who are unemployed will have no resources to start their own businesses. They challenge the suggestion that ethnic minorities who experience higher level of unemployment are likely to start their own businesses by arguing that the fact that they are unemployed means that they do not have the means and necessary resources that are needed to start a business. Light and Rosenstein also argued that if disadvantage on the labour market was the main reason for entering into self-employment, then there was no reason why the native whites and other advantaged groups would engage in self-employment. In the case of the UK, the native whites have higher rates of self-employment compared to some ethnic minority groups who are perceived to suffer more disadvantages on the labour market. Men from all ethnic groups also have higher self-employment rates compared to their female counterparts even though it is the women who supposedly suffer more disadvantages than men. Light and Rosenstein (1995) argue that if disadvantage was to be the main reason why ethnic minority groups enter into self-employment, then why do some ethnic groups have higher rates of self-employment while others do not even though they all experience the same disadvantages. Light and Rosenstein (1995) rather posit that resource constraints are the limiting factor in entrepreneurship intentions for those who are disadvantaged on the labour market and that accounts for differences in self-employment among different ethnic groups. However Light and Rosenstein (1995) failed to address the impact of race, gender and ethnicity on one’s ability to obtain the resources. They also failed to acknowledge that certain ethnic groups are bestowed with greater resources that others. They seem to imply that the only major resource that is needed for someone to start their own business if financial resources. Though finance is important for any business start-up, evidence from other studies has shown that ethnic minority groups rely heavily on their social networks to raise finance. They also use other bootstrapping strategies in the early stages of their businesses. On the other hand Pull factors are viewed positively. Whilst many researchers concentrated on the push factors, Curran et al (1991) and Rees, (1992) focused on the positive pull factors like flexibility and independence. More recent studies also suggest the women are pulled by 9

the need for independence and monetary benefits (Humbert, and Drew 2010). Some of the pull factors include self-fulfilment, challenge, control and the desire for independence. Methodology The paper does not propose a hypothesis, but take a rather exploratory approach based on the constructivist ontological position. Assumptions about the entrepreneurial experiences of black African migrant women in the UK are therefore based on the perceptions, meanings, thoughts, and viewpoints and lived experiences of the women themselves. Epistemologically, the study assumes the position of interpretivism as I believe it will not be possible to carry out such study objectively and in a value free manner given that the study is dealing with social reality and so takes Hughes (1994) and Proctor (1998) position that reality is socially constructed and its construction can be influenced by factors like culture and gender. As a result of the ontological and epistemological commitments of the researcher, this qualitative piece of work was conducted using face to face semi structured interviews with 35 migrant black African female entrepreneurs based in the Birmingham area of the West Midlands, United Kingdom. Birmingham is the 2nd largest city in Britain with a large number of migrants. The interviews which were recorded on tape lasted on average one hour each and they were conducted over a period of four months between September and December 2011. An interview schedule was used to guide the researcher during the interviews and to ensure that all key areas were covered. The interview tapes were manually transcribed immediately following each interview. Data was analysed from records observations, field notes, and tape recording of the interviews. From these records, codes of emerging themes were generated and used as categories for analysing, synthesizing and summarizing the data resulting in preliminary findings which are presented in this paper.

The participants were identified

using the purposive snowball sampling strategy in order to ensure a fair representation of women of different backgrounds from different African countries. The interviews were conducted within the business premises of each participant. Table 1 shows the demographic profile of the women who took part in the study. The businesses are small and fairly new with the majority having been started in the last three years. All the women were 1st generation migrants (meaning they had been born outside the United Kingdom) and most of them (83%) had lived in Britain for no more than 10 years. The majority (66%) of the women is married and many (57%) are educated to degree level and above. 10

Table 1:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35

Demographic characteristics of the Participants

Age Country of origin

Marital status

Children

Highest Qualifications

Type of business

Years in business

49 44 32 33 36 34 39 46 35 34 34 47 39 26 45 38 38 47 39 34 31 34 44 39 32 34 32 38 48 31 29 34 37 33 32

Married Widow Married Married Single Single Married Married Married Married Married Married Married Single Married Married Married Married Single Married Single Married Married Married Married Single Married Married Divorcee Separated Married Single Separated Married Single

0 3 2 2 0 1 3 3 3 1 2 2 2 0 3 1 2 3 0 0 0 2 4 2 0 2 1 0 0 2 3 1 2 1 2

MBA Nursing degree BA English ‘A’ level BSc in Psychology ‘O’ Levels Degree in Education BSc in Psychology Masters in Law BSc in Social Work ‘O’ Levels ‘O’ Levels BSc in Nursing BSc in Psychology None ‘O’ Levels BSc Mental health Degree in Law ‘O’ Levels Masters in Law ‘O’ Levels ‘O’ Levels Degree in Education None MA Public health ‘O’ Level Master’s in business MA Public health Masters in Law ‘O’ Levels ‘O’ Levels ‘O’ Levels BSc in business BSc in Sociology None

Restaurant Care Agency services Retail Hair dressing Hair dressing Hair dressing Hair dressing Hair dressing Restaurant Sales & Distribution Sales & Distributor Clothing Interior decorations Confectionary African products Money transfer Restaurant Hair dressing Hair dressing Legal services Market trader Market trader Catering services Cleaning services Care agency services Clothing Boutique Accountancy services Education & Training Immigration services Hair dressing Network Marketing Hair dressing Clothing shop Hair dressing Grocery shop

18 12 2 3 2 2 3 5 3 2 2 0 0 0 1 3 1 5 7 1 2 1 4 4 1 0 3 4 5 2 1 4 0 1 3

Nigerian Nigerian Zimbabwe Zimbabwe Congo (DRC) Uganda Congo (DRC) Cameroon Nigeria Zimbabwe Zambia Zimbabwe Zimbabwe Zimbabwe Guinea Uganda Nigeria Guinea Kenya Congo Uganda Kenya Nigeria Uganda Ghana Cameroon Zambia South Africa South Africa Swaziland Zimbabwe Zimbabwe Ghana Ghana Sierra Leone

Findings and Discussion Migration history Understanding the migration history and immigration status of Black African women in the context of business ownership is important in helping us to understand how this might have influenced or played a part in their decisions to start their own businesses, the nature of businesses they started and the experiences they had when they started their businesses. It will also help to explain their attitude toward business, their motivations and the challenges that they have encountered. As noted by Barrett et al. (2002), the legal or immigration status of migrants, “... is in itself a key determinant of whether self-employment is viable or even 11

possible as a career choice” (p.11). An analysis of the women who took part in the study (figure 4.2) reveals that they came into the country for various reasons and most had to disguise their actual intentions when they first arrived. As Adepoju (2004) posited, the significant increase in the black African women coming from Africa was for different reasons including; joining their husbands, further education or to pursue their professional careers in areas like health, hence the large number of black African women working in the health sector. As revealed in figure 1, those who initially came as visitors accounted for 34 per cent followed by those who came on study visas who made up 29 per cent of the sample. Following closely are those came as dependents (26 per cent). Three women came as asylum seekers or refugees and one came on a working holiday visa. This shows the transient nature of their migration when they first arrived in the UK. Figure 1:

Original purpose for migration

Regarding the original purpose of their migration, most the women confessed that even though they had stated different reasons for migration which they believed would allow them entry at the border when they first arrived in the UK; their actual intention was to work for a few years (2-5 years), raise money and go back home. All the women in the sample admitted that they missed their targets of going back home within the two to five years and they had stayed longer than they had originally intended. They however remain nostalgic about their home countries and said they still intended to go back home at some point with some mentioning family commitments as holding them from going back. For example many of the women stated that they would go back home when their children are old enough to look after themselves or when they are at university as typified by Danielle one of the women in the 12

study who said, ‘…because I cherish the English education system so I want my children to take advantage of free education and for them to attend a local university before they make their own choices as to whether they would like to stay in the country’. For some of the women, they would like to acquire the British citizenship before they go back home so that they can come back to the UK as and when they like in case things do not work out back home. Some still said they would go back as soon as they have raised enough money to start their businesses in their home countries in order to secure them a better future. At the time of the interviews, most the women had changed their immigration status as shown on figure.2, with the vast majority (74 per cent) having acquired permanent settlement status. Five other women (14 per cent) had acquired full refugee status and the remaining four (12 per cent) still had Limited leave To Remain (LTR) in the UK. Figure 2:

Current immigration statuses

Given the transient nature of their original migration as a result of the manner in which these women initially came to the UK and the time it took (on average 4 years) to regularize or change their immigration status, it may explain why many of their businesses are relatively new. While they had been in the country for about 10 years on average, their businesses are on average three years old. Besides the transient nature of their migration, for many of them, their immigration status restricted them on what they could or could not do for instance, those who came as students, visitors or refugees were not allowed to engage in business. Since those whom came as students and visitors formed the bulk of the women, they had to wait until their immigration status changed to say dependents or permanent residence before they could go into business. Apart from those who initially came into the country as dependents, 13

the rest (74%) because of their immigration status, it would not have been possible for them to start their own businesses. As their immigration status changed, this was followed by an increase in the number of those starting their own businesses. This affected their accumulation of financial resources and restricted their ability to build a credit history which is often used by banks to assess individuals’ eligibility for bank finance. Because of restrictions on their visas some of the women were unable to seek formal employment and those that did, were working illegally. This drove some of these women underground and it was at that time that some of them started their businesses especially hairdressing which they could do in their own homes with little or no capital. The immigration status of many of these women also limited their ability to network openly and many developed mistrust for each other fearing that they might be reported to the authorities. This was evident during the interviews when women who still had not yet regularized their stay in the country were reluctant to be interviewed. Given that many of them were limited on the number of hours they could work, they believe this affected their ability to accumulate financial resources and since many of the people within their social networks had similar experiences, it became hard for them to seek financial help from within those networks. From those experiences, one could see that the immigration status of many of these women was a challenge which determined to some extent, the trajectory of their businesses. For some of these women, had their immigration status not been restrictive when they first came into the country, they could have started their businesses earlier though they acknowledge the fact that they still needed to work hard to raise the capital they needed to successfully launch their businesses. Length of stay in the UK The migration history of the women entrepreneurs in the sample shows that the overwhelming majority of the women (83%) had been in the country for no more than 10 years (figure 3). They all came into the country as adults except for one who came in as a child dependent.

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Figure 3:

Number of years in the country

This supports findings from other studies which found that the majority of black African migrants came into the UK in the early part of the 21st century. Of all ethnic minority immigrants, the black African arrival in the UK has been fairly recent with the majority arriving in the 1990s (Clark and Drinkwater, 2009). Only one woman in the study had been in the country for more than 20 years with the remaining four having been in the country for periods ranging from 11 to 20 years. Type of businesses As discussed earlier, the immigration status of the majority of the women played a part in determining when they started their businesses and what type of businesses they operated. The businesses run by these women are in different sectors though the retail sector appeared to dominate (Table 1). Under retailing are women involved in marketing and selling of household items such as kitchen ware, interior decorations, clothing, groceries and market traders. Their businesses are fairly small with many of them having no employees. Most of the businesses operate from established premises with only a few operating from home with all the women working as owner/manager in the business. In terms of size, there is not much difference with most having at least one employee. Figure 4 shows by classification the type of businesses run by these women. Within the services category 12 women are involved in different types of service delivery. Two of the women under this category are involved businesses that provide education and work based training. Two other women are involved in provision of legal advice particularly in the area of immigration. These women said their 15

businesses were doing well as immigration advice is big business in the country. They draw most of their clients from people of different ethnic background especially Africans. Two other women also offer professional services in the field of accountancy and auditing. They work in partnership with others and they provide specialist services in their field of training. Another three women run agencies that provide services such as cleaning and care. These women seem to be well established and their businesses are relatively large employing more people than the other businesses. Those that run care agencies hold professional qualifications in nursing and they have had experience in the field before. Another woman operates a money transfer business in which she sends money on behalf of her clients to some African countries like Uganda and Kenya. She also operates an internet café on the same premises. One woman runs a cleaning agency business in partnership with her husband though she says she works in the business full time and her husband has another full time job elsewhere. If hair dressing was to be reclassified as services, the services sector would constitute the largest sector in which the majority of the women’s businesses are concentrated, confirming findings by Davidson et al. (2010) who in their recent analysis of demographic distribution of businesses owned by Black And Minority Ethnic (BAME) women entrepreneurs found that more Black women operated businesses in the services sector compared to other BAME women. Figure 4:

Classification of business started by the women

Businesses in the hair and beauty sector constitute 31 per cent of businesses in the study confirming earlier findings by Carter and Shaw (2006) who concluded that an increase in 16

personal services like hair dressing which can be easily converted into self-employment is a way in which women will increase their rate of self-employment. Many of the women also use what they refer to as ‘rent a chair’ whereby other (usually freelance) hairdressers bring in their own clients to the salon and rent a chair for the day i.e. they pay the owner of the salon a certain amount or percentage of what they charge each client to the owner of the salon. This appears to be quite popular with most of the women owning their own salons. Apart from hair dressing, all these women also sell hair products and accessories as part of the business. The last category is for those businesses falling under the catering sector. Under this category are businesses operating as restaurants and those providing meals for special functions like weddings and parties. The women operate from established premises with only two operating from home. Those operating from home provide catering services for functions. Further analysis of the businesses owned by these women shows that the businesses are not concentrated but spread across different sectors. This supports the view by Clark and Drinkwater (2009) that unlike other ethnic minority groups who are concentrated in certain types of provision, the black African group is the most diversified and is most likely to be working in professional and business services. This is further collaborated by Nwankwo (2005), who found little evidence of structural concentration in any particular sector by African entrepreneurs. Carland et al., (1984) and Tanuguchi, (2002), have also tried to make a connection between experiences in employment and the type of business women start. They found that entrepreneurs both male and female are most likely to start business based on their previous work experience, and since women have traditionally been concentrated in work areas like teaching, nursing, office work and retail, they tend to start businesses in those same areas - hence their concentration in those sectors of the economy. Such relationship between what happens in the wider economy especially in the labour market and what happens in enterprise creation has been seen by Carter and Shaw (2006) as ‘the socio-economic context’ in women entrepreneurship. The enclave phenomenon according to Clark and Drinkwater (2010) holds for some ethnic minority groups like the Pakistani and Bangladeshi groups as they are the groups most likely to be concentrated in particular geographic areas compared to black African women.

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Age of the businesses The migration history of the women in the study showed that on average, they had been in the country for about 10 years and due to their immigration experiences discussed earlier, most of their businesses are between one and five years old (figure 5). Of those businesses, 23 of them (making up 66% of all the businesses in the study) are no more than three years old. Businesses that had been in existence for no more than 12 months are five and two businesses have been there for more than 10 years with the oldest being 18 years old. Businesses that had been recently started at the time of the study (i.e. those that were less than 12 months old) were five, accounting for 14% of the total businesses in the study (figure 7). Taking into account those women who had started their businesses in the last 12 months at the time of the study, the majority of the businesses i.e. those between 0-3 years account for 90% of all the businesses. Figure 5:

Age of the businesses

Entrepreneurial characteristics of the women Having considered the migration history and demographic characteristics of the women and their businesses, the individual characteristics of the entrepreneurs and their perception of family and business seem to shape not only the type of businesses they started but also their entrepreneurial experiences in managing those businesses. Using Geoffe and Scace (1985) typology which distinguishes between women entrepreneurs is useful in understanding the choice of business by Black African women and the manner they choose to run those businesses. The typology considers the extent to which women subscribe to and show attachment the traditional gender roles (which are socially constructed, culturally defined and 18

traditionally practiced) compared to their attachment to what is considered as entrepreneurial ideals. The attachment to entrepreneurial ideals includes a strong work ethic, the independence they demonstrate in running their businesses and the degree of self- reliance they show among others and those who subscribe to the traditional gender roles show commitment to both their gender roles in the home, and entrepreneurial ideals (Mirchandani, 1999). In the study the overwhelming majority of the women appeared to subscribe to the later. There was general consensus among the women on the need to balance the needs of their businesses with the need to fulfill their gender roles in the home. Geoffe and Scase (1985) refer to such women as “conventional entrepreneurs”. Mirchandani (1999) suggests that by accepting women’s subordinate role to men, they are prepared to work long hours in order to fulfill the often conflicting demands of their domestic and entrepreneurial responsibilities. They run their businesses in a way that is compatible with their domestic obligations (figure 6). In other words, for conventional entrepreneurs, their domestic responsibilities determine how they run their businesses and not the other way round. Geoffe and Scase suggests that the conventional women start their businesses in sectors like catering, running care home or agencies, restaurants, guest houses, cleaning, and hairdressing among others as these are associated with traditional female roles which they have always performed. Evidence from the study does confirm this as women in the study were found to operate similar type of businesses. There was however little evidence of the “Innovative” entrepreneurs who according to Geoffe and Scace, show more commitment to their entrepreneurial roles than they do to their conventional gender roles. The Innovative entrepreneurs according to Geoffe and Scase are highly committed to entrepreneurial ideals while rejecting the notion of gender roles. In the study, though a few challenged the idea of conventional gender roles, they still believed that there is a place for a woman in the home. While they expect their businesses to grow, they believe this should not be at the expense of their families.

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Figure 6: High

Entrepreneurial characteristics of Participants Domestic Entrepreneurs 55%

Conventional Entrepreneurs 45%

Traditional Gender roles Radical Entrepreneurs 0%

Innovative Entrepreneurs 0%

Low Low

Entrepreneurial Ideals

High

Evidence from the study also shows that there are women who according to Geoffe and Scace are “Domestic traders”. These women according to Mirchandani (1999) are women who focus more on their domestic roles and show less commitment to their entrepreneurial roles (figure 6). According to Mirchandani, when a conflict arises between their domestic and entrepreneurial responsibilities, the domestic traders will forgo their entrepreneurial duties in order to satisfy their domestic responsibilities. For such women, their primary responsibility is to their families and to them business is secondary and when they started their businesses, they had to consider their families first and their businesses are centered on their families. These women according to Mirchandani have a strong attachment to the traditional female roles and limited attachment to entrepreneurial ideals. When they start their businesses, they operate in areas such as beauty care (like hair dressing), dressmaking handicraft and other professions which do not require a great deal of skill. There was evidence from the study to support this assertion as one of the reasons such women gave for the type of businesses they operate was, ‘it gives me flexibility to be able to take care of my family’. The fourth type of woman referred to by Geoffe and Scase as the “radical” entrepreneur refers to those women who show less commitment to both the conventional gender role and entrepreneurship ideals. They are the opposite of the “conventional” entrepreneur. Their businesses are not motivated by the desire to make profit but rather as social enterprises with commitment to advance the interests of women as they are influenced by the feminist ideologies and see themselves as part of the feminist movement. In the study, there was no evidence of such women with the exception of one woman who offers immigration and advocacy services mainly to African 20

migrants and who said she was motivated by the desire to help fellow migrants. So using Geoffee and Scase typology the findings reveal that the women in the study fell into two categories of conventional and domestic entrepreneurs and the one thing they have in common is their commitment to traditional gender roles in the home. Figure 6 depicts the different characteristics with the two top boxes showing where the women in the study are situated. There was no evidence of radical or innovative entrepreneurs in the study which could explain the importance Africans women attach to family life. How the businesses were started Armengot et al, (2010) suggests that migration history is an important factor in the determination of entrepreneurial behavior. The businesses started by the women in the study were started with little financial capital and most of the women started businesses in the areas that they had either trained in or worked in before. Due to limited finance, most of the businesses operated from home on part time basis when they first started and with some income flowing from the business and savings they made from working part-time, they managed to save enough capital that allowed them to move into established premises as articulated by Marlow et al. (2009) that women are more likely than men to operate their businesses from home on a part-time basis. When they first started, the women were running their businesses informally and on a part time basis and they did this in order to cut costs of renting business premises and for some, they were not sure whether their businesses would succeed and so did not want to commit themselves to a lease. For others, it was a risk management strategy as they wanted to taste the market first and gather confidence before moving into rented property. For such women, it was a strategy for managing risk. They also mention that the reason they ran their businesses on a part time basis was because they did not have many customers to keep them busy in the business and also running their businesses part time allowed them to keep their jobs just in case the business failed they had a fall back strategy. They also continued working so that they could raise money quickly to operate formally.

At the time of the study, the vast majority of the businesses operated from

established premises with only a few operating from home. Those businesses operating from home were involved in selling household goods and two others provide catering services at functions. However most of the businesses when they first started, particularly those in hair dressing and service provision operated from home and later moved to business premises. All the women were involved in the day to day running of their businesses and when they are not available, they would let their employees run the business on their behalf. 21

‘Pushed’ or ‘Pulled’ into business? Based on the push and pull theory which suggests that ethnic minority immigrants are entrepreneurs of necessity who are pushed into business while non-migrant women are mainly pulled , the study found that the majority of these women believe they were pulled than pushed into business. Only six women believe they were pushed by circumstances into starting their own businesses with the remaining (83%) suggesting they were pulled by different factors, though in some cases it was not apparent as to whether they were pushed or pulled. For instance if someone claimed that their job was limited in scope, it could be urged that this was a push factor yet the women urged that what seemed as a push factor was in actual factor a trigger that opened them the door to a whole world of opportunities that otherwise they would not have recognized. However in analyzing the responses the women gave as to why and how they started their businesses, it would suggest that they were pulled if they were able to turn their negative experiences into opportunity recognition. It was interesting to note that most of the women preferred to use the term pulled than pushed and they preferred to be considered entrepreneurs of opportunity than necessity demonstrated by the level of confidence they displayed during the interviews and how positively they viewed their businesses despite the challenges they faced. As figure 7 shows, pull factors included recognizing an opportunity, wanting to be own boss and life style choice among others. All these are considered as pull factors. Figure 7: Summary of the motivations based on responses

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NB: Some women gave more than one reason and the one that influenced them the most is the one indicated. A summary of the pull factors (figure 8) shows that 29 women (83% of the total sample) were pulled into business with the remaining six (17%) claiming to have been pushed by circumstances. While one might argue factors like the need for flexibility or boredom with previous employment as push factors, these women do not see it that way. They seem to view these seemingly negative push factors in a positive way and as triggers in the same way Bourdieu and Wacquant (1992) have argued that push/pull factors are not the sole determinants of decisions to go into self-employment and that people do not operate like robots that have to be pushed and pulled but rather use their agency abilities to mitigate against the external structures – something these women have demonstrated as having the capability to shape their destiny. Also unlike the suggestion by Hisrich and Brush (1985) that females from upper and middle class family are motivated by pull factors compared to females from lower classes who are motivated by push factors, none of the women in the sample claim to come from the upper or middle class. They rather associate themselves with poverty or disadvantaged backgrounds. It may be logical to conclude as Gatewood et al, (1995) suggested that regardless of the situation, some individuals have a cognitive orientation towards entrepreneurship and for the women in the study it is the case of; ‘where there is a will there is a way’. Figure 8: Participants pull and push factors

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While several researchers have identified different pull and push factors, for instance, Marlow (2002) suggested inequalities in the labour market as pushing women into selfemployment whilst entrepreneurial rewards monetary or non-monetary pulled them into selfemployment. A number of other researchers have associated push factors with frustration experienced by women in paid jobs, glass ceiling imposed on them, and other negative experiences in the labour market (Hisrich and Brush, 1983; Geoffe and Scase, 1985). Phizacklea, (1988); Ram and Jones, (1998), Basu and Goswami, (1999) have also suggested that the disadvantage suffered by ethnic minority groups on the labour market is one of the major push factors for them. In their studies of African American women entrepreneurs, Fielden and Davidson (2005) found that women were motivated by external factors for which they have no control e.g. lack of employment opportunities, child care and challenges of balancing work life with family life. Unfair treatment in the workplace, stereotyping and lack of recognition of past achievements has also been seen as some of the barriers faced by women (Heilman and Chen, 2003; Cox and Nkomo, 1986). While these may be true for some ethnic minority groups or earlier migrants, evidence from the study suggests that black African women are not pushed by most of those factors but are rather pushed by personal circumstance typically during the transition from one immigration category to another and also the need to raise money quickly to meet their mounting financial obligations in the countries they live and in their home countries. This suggests that the new migrants have different push factors and other challenges to those faced by early migrants. The pull factors seem to have largely remained the same notably those who pursue business as a way of life, hobby or passion, and those who discover opportunities.

Conclusions Implications The difficulties the new migrants experience during transition from transient to settlement status, suggests that without proper support at this critical phase will undermine their ability to start viable businesses. They will also continue to shy away from formal sources of support and their activities remain will unaccounted and the contribution they make to the GDP unacknowledged some remain in the shadows of the formal economy. Recognition of their presence as potential entrepreneurs has the benefit of allowing them to access certain services like information, advice and support while at the same time allowing authorities to maintain accurate data about their economic activities which assists them in their planning. This also 24

has implications for the migrants themselves as they will come out from the periphery to the mainstream economy and be able to influence policy. Their demographic characteristics shows that they are much younger than other studies have suggested and because of this, the challenge to balance business and family is even greater and this combined with how tradition and culture are embedded in these women need to be taken into consideration in policy formulation as the role of the woman is still considered to be in the home which increases their burden of balancing business and family. Access to affordable childcare provision may be one way these women may be able to fully exploit their entrepreneurial potential and capacity. Limitations and Observations As Dawe and Fielden (2005) observed, one problem encountered when carrying out a research of this nature is the lack of disaggregated data on women entrepreneurship especially on Black and Minority Ethnic Groups and particularly on Black African businesses. Another limitation is lack of information on where and how to approach women in business given that many of them are not members of any formal business organization and in the case of those who belong to business associations, the data held by these organizations does not provide certain vital information such as ethnicity or nationality. This made it very difficult to identify potential participants and as a result purposive snowball sampling was used to identify suitable women to take part in the study. Using this approach may have introduced an element of bias in the selection of participants to the study. The lack of literature on black Africans, women in particular has resulted in inferences being made based on the experiences of other ethnic minority women. Conclusion and Recommendations As the world continues to globalize, and borders and boundaries continue to diminish, this poses major challenges at local and national levels for those countries which find them playing host to migrants especially from third world and other developing countries. This also poses challenges for researchers as governments fail to accurately account for the new migrants and the contribution they are making in their host countries. This lack of reliable data means inference has to be made resulting in treatment of ethnic minority groups as a homogenous group. The experiences of 1st generation migrant black African women may not be unique to them only and further research may be necessary to determine the experiences of their male counterparts and the extent to which gender plays a part in those experiences. A 25

comparative study with other 1st generation ethnic minority migrant women may also be necessary to ascertain whether they had similar experiences and challenges when they first arrived in the UK and if they did how they dealt with the challenges and what lessons could the black African women learn from their predecessors. In this paper I have sought to make contribution to the discourses on migrant entrepreneurship by identifying a gap in existing literature and presenting preliminary empirical evidence which I believe will encourage further research and dialogue in this area.

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