Bangladeshi Immigrant entrepreneurs of London and Luton

Abstract

The United Kingdom (UK) is home to the largest proportion of Bangladeshis outside of Bangladesh, amounting to a figure of 447,201 as of the 2011 census.1 Tower hamlets in London comprise of half of the Bangladeshi population in UK with the figure amounting to 222,127 according to the 2011 census. Birmingham consists of the largest population of Bangladeshis outside London, with Oldham coming second and Luton having the third largest population in UK outside London.2 Most of these Bangladeshi immigrants open their own enterprises and exhibit entrepreneurial behaviour outside of their home country. According to Aldrich, Waldinger and Ward, immigrants open their own enterprise in the host country due to entry barriers in the job market, causing ethnic entrepreneurship as the only means of economic survival.3One of the aims of this study is to understand the motivations behind these Bangladeshi entrepreneurs to take up self-employment, whether it was a result of blocked opportunities or other factors contributed to it as well.