New research from Third Sector Research Centre shows that emerging policy in relation to social enterprise may not benefit ethnic minority groups equally.
This is not due to lack of involvement in social enterprise. Research shows that migrants and ethnic minorities are not only more likely to become engaged in social entrepreneurial activities than the white population but that this activity is growing among BME groups.
Despite growing attention from policy makers towards BME social enterprise, research shows that current policy directions are as likely to reproduce marginalisation and exclusion for ethnic minority populations as they are to transform them.
BME groups moving towards a social enterprise model are often less engaged with policy processes and have unequal access to mainstream support infrastructures.
They are commonly small community based groups, without the capacity and resources to compete for public service contracts.
The research was conducted in five boroughs of East London, which represent some of the most deprived and ethnically diverse areas in the UK and are also the site of the 2012 Olympics.
Among the promised benefits of the Games was the participation of BME groups in its preparation and delivery, particularly those engaged in social enterprise.
However, from a sample of 200 BME organisations interviewed, all but 8 organisations pointed out that they had not benefited from any opportunity arising from or related to the preparation of the 2012 Games.
Whilst social entrepreneurial activity is growing among the BME voluntary, community and third sector, this is largely due to enforced financial impetuses such as the reduction of grant funding.
Some BME third sector groups were highly critical of the notion of ‘social enterprise’ that they saw represented in official policy discussion and debate.
This was viewed as a means to reduce funding to migrant and ethnic based organisations and force them into delivering service level contracts at the expense of developing their own independent agendas.
This may explain why many BME organisations are adopting the social enterprise model but not the social enterprise label.
TSRC researcher Leandro Sepulveda commented: "Social enterprise activity helps meet specific community needs, create employment and develop networks and social capital among minority groups.
"But social enterprise policy, under both New Labour and the current Coalition government, has been focused on the delivery of public services within which the scope for participation by small scale BME organisations is highly restricted.
"Social enterprise practices are likely to exclude such groups unless they are built upward from existing BME activity.”
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