Refugee Week is the world's largest arts and culture festival celebrating the contributions, creativity, and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary. It takes place every year in June, bringing together communities across the UK and beyond through events, exhibitions, film screenings, and conversations that challenge the narratives we too often hear about displaced people.
The theme for 2026 was courage.
Courage, the organisers remind us, can be found in simple acts: opening your door to a neighbour, trying new food, sharing your story - or simply having the courage to be yourself in a place where everything is unfamiliar. For refugees, courage is often a daily necessity. It is the courage to face unknown journeys, learn new languages, navigate unfamiliar systems, or simply to wake up each morning and step into an uncertain world.
For some, that courage takes the form of starting a business.
Refugee Entrepreneurship in the UK
The history of refugee entrepreneurship in Britain is long and distinguished. Michael Marks, a refugee from Belarus, arrived in Leeds in 1882 with very little English and even less money. He started with a market stall in Kirkgate Market. That stall became Marks & Spencer - one of the most recognised brands in British retail history.
Michael Marks is not an anomaly. The contribution of refugee entrepreneurs to the UK economy is something that Dr Michelle Richey, Associate Professor in Entrepreneurship and Technology at Loughborough Business School and Research and Evaluation Chair at the Refugee Entrepreneurship Network, has spent years documenting.
The Refugee Entrepreneurship Network is a global community that exists to convene organisations around a powerful idea: that people can thrive on the power of their own ideas, even after being forced to leave everything behind and start again in a new country. Richey's research reveals a picture that should make policymakers and investors pay close attention. Refugee-led businesses survive for more than two years and sometimes to ten, outperforming typical business survival rates. They repay loans beyond typical business repayment rates. Demand for support programmes always outstrips what can be supplied.
As Richey puts it: refugees represent a real, viable, and exciting investment opportunity. In an age when we tend to talk about tech investment, this is about human investment - about what happens when we choose to believe in people.
Akbar: Street Food from Samarkand
Akbar is from Samarkand in Uzbekistan. He's a street food vendor and caterer, working festivals across the UK. He found his way to the Refugee Entrepreneurship Network through his wife, and describes the first day of support as a turning point. "It was completely different. They helped us a lot. Without them, maybe I wouldn't start." Akbar's business is a living example of what becomes possible when refugee entrepreneurs are given the practical support they need to build on the skills and traditions they already carry with them.
Fatma: Social Entrepreneurship from Yemen
Fatma is an entrepreneur and refugee from Yemen. She runs a social media business and is co-founder of Your ECHO, an international organisation empowering Yemeni youth both in Yemen and abroad - culturally and educationally. Fatma is clear-eyed about the challenges. The narrative around refugees, she observes, is continually hostile, and it has a direct impact on projects like the Refugee Entrepreneurship Network: funding can be cut quickly, suddenly, and absolutely, destroying projects that bring real economic benefit to the communities they serve. Her response is to keep building - and to keep advocating for refugee entrepreneurs to be understood, supported, and invested in.
Anna: A Ukrainian Catering Business in Islington
The contribution of refugee entrepreneurs is something I've seen first-hand through my own work.
Anna arrived in London from Ukraine in March 2022 through the Homes for Ukraine scheme, having left behind a successful catering business. I worked with her through Purpose-Led Business Coaching to build a boutique catering service in Islington, drawing on the culinary traditions of the Carpathian mountains. She started with pop-up suppers for twelve people at a friend's house. Within two years, she was running a team-led operation projecting more than £420,000 a year - employing other displaced Ukrainian women, preserving her heritage, and funding meals for people experiencing food insecurity with every booking.
Anna's business is now on track to turn over £1 million a year.
Her story is told across a two-part case study series on this website - a detailed account of what it looks like to build a purpose-led business from nothing, in a country you didn't plan to live in, with courage, creativity, and the strategic support to make it happen.
Why This Matters
Refugee Week reminds us that courage takes many forms. The entrepreneurs in this piece - Akbar, Fatma, Anna - are building the future they want in countries they didn't always choose. Their businesses boost local economies, create employment, strengthen communities, and challenge the narratives that too often define displaced people by what they've lost rather than what they're building.
Their contribution enriches all of us.
Further Resources
From Refugees to CEOs: Their Incredible Journeys of Success — a short film exploring resilience, creativity, and entrepreneurial spirit, led by Dr Michelle Richey
Alexander Betts, Naohiko Omata, Jade Siu, and Olivier Sterck, The Refugee Trap: The Economics of Displacement
Dr Michelle Richey — Associate Professor in Entrepreneurship and Technology, Loughborough University; Research and Evaluation Chair, Refugee Entrepreneurship Network
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I work with purpose-led founders and leaders at every stage of growth. If this piece has sparked something - and you'd like to think about what it means for your business, I'd welcome a conversation.
