Summer news from CREME

Latin American experiences of migration, work and employment workshop

Dr. Maria Villares of CREME (the Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship) has been successful in securing funding from IAS to hold an important one-day workshop on ‘Latin American experiences of migration, work and employment’, on the 2nd of November, as part of the Latin American and Caribbean Migration Network (MIGRALAC) Workshop series. A distinguished group of international scholars will discuss different aspects of work and employment of migrants in both Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean. This workshop has these main purposes: the identification of emerging themes, potential partners and stakeholders for engagement for ongoing and future research projects; the consolidation and expansion of the MIGRALAC research network (currently coordinated between the University of Oxford, University of Birmingham and Queen Mary University of London); and mapping potential contacts for future research developments within key strategic partners for UoB, such as Brazil.

For more information about MIGRALAC: http://www.geog.qmul.ac.uk/research/migralac/index.html.
For more information about the event contact Dr Maria Villares: m.villares@bham.ac.uk

Monder Ram - Understanding New European Entrepreneurs

Professor Monder Ram of CREME, wrote an article on Understanding New European Entrepreneurs, published in the summer edition of the New European magazine. The article discusses the reasons behind the large number of migrant entrepreneurs and the measures that should be taken to improve diversity practices in Business. You can read the article on page 21 of the magazine here: http://unitee.eu/book/the_new_european_5/.

International Workshop on Intersectionality and Migrant Enterprise

A workshop entitled ‘International Workshop on Intersectionality and Migrant Enterprise’ was held on the 11 June 2015 at the University of Birmingham. The workshop brought participants up to date with current research in the area of immigrant entrepreneurship, and in particular looking at categories of difference (gender, ethnicity, family composition, religion and class), providing the space and opportunity to discuss emerging challenges for research and policy.

Learn more about the event (PDF - 1.22MB)

Business Mentoring Event

On 25 June, in an effort to engage and empower entrepreneurs in the UK, the Enterprise and Diversity Alliance (EDA) part of CREME, together with SFEDI, the Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs (IOEE), and Lloyds Banking Group combined forces to host an event for small businesses to hear about the benefits of mentoring and to enable entrepreneurs to meet a mentor.

The event consisted of a discussion on the benefit of mentoring for entrepreneurs, which was led by Ruth Lowbridge, Executive Director of SFEDI; an introduction to the University of Birmingham and its role in engaging with SMEs by Professor Kiran Trehan and Kate Jermey; a discussion by Jackie Jenks, Senior Manager, Enterprise Mentoring and Claire Carr, Client Manager at Lloyds Bank, on how Lloyds is leading the way with mentoring; an introduction to the IOEE by Sarah Trouten, Chief Executive; and mentoring sessions between mentors and mentees that attended on the day. Professor Kiran Trehan highlighted how mentoring can help entrepreneurs star up and scale up.

CREME secures two new collaborative bids

ON A DIFFERENT SCALE: A NEW ERA FOR THE ENTERPRISE AND DIVERSITY ALLIANCE (Monder Ram and Kiran Trehan)

This project aims to develop the evidence base to support the EDA’s vision to ‘make diversity and enterprise everyone’s business. It will achieve this by:

Developing an ongoing (or ‘formative) evaluation model to assess the impact of the EDA activities
Collating evidence on how the research-based interventions of the EDA are influencing the practice of its partners
Designing EDA interventions in a manner that allows the generation of research material for high quality publications

The cost of the overall project is £52,135.50, comprising £20,000 from Lloyds Bank, £20,000 from the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF), and £12,135.50 from the ESRC IAA.

FACILITATING NEW MIGRANT BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT: A COLLABORATIVE APPROACH (Maria Villares and Monder Ram)

This project aims to develop a long-term programme of knowledge exchange and collaborative research between the CREME) and Ashley Community Housing Community (ACHA). The project aims to develop the capacity of new migrant businesses and enhance the provision of enterprise support available to them. It will achieve this by:

Establishing a ‘baseline’ of new migrant business activity in Birmingham
Encouraging knowledge-sharing amongst intermediaries and business support providers
Developing a tailored system of business support for these firms.
Promoting good practice arising from this intervention to other existing and aspiring new migrants in the city
Disseminating this model of support to other parts of the UK.

The cost of the overall project is £51,142, of which ACHA will make a direct contribution of 20k . The Higher Education Innovation Fund will provide 20k.

You are invited...

The Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship invites you to its 19th Annual Ethnic Minority Business Conference, taking place onTuesday 20 October 2015 at Fazeley Studios, and showcasing new developments in research and practice on diversity and enterprise.

Learn more about the event