Immigrants' contribution to UK entrepreneurialism revealed

London, June 13 (ANI): Groundbreaking research has revealed the huge and positive entrepreneurial impact that Britain's immigrant communities have had on the country.

According to The Guardian, the findings raise significant questions in the debate over immigration policies.

Richard Webber, visiting professor of geography at King's College London, who has studied the data, said: "Until now the discussion about immigration has been about workers rather than entrepreneurs."

"There has been a tendency to say 'the countryside is short of people picking vegetables so we need more Romanians' or 'we are short of nurses so we need more Nigerians.' That's a reasonable debate to have, but the issue of entrepreneurship is different; it's not about shortages," he adds.

In general, the research by Experian, a data analysis company, found that people of non-white British origin were hugely over-represented in medical practices (a figure of 235), dental practices (215), dispensing chemists (253) and the wholesale of pharmaceutical products (241).

People of English origin scored 101.2 on the index, hardly above the average, while the Scottish scored 95.5 and the Welsh 90.4 - both below the average.

Sectors dominated by the Irish tend to involve building - the hiring out of construction machinery equipment (242), construction and demolition work (210) and civil engineering (189).

The database was of nearly half a million entrepreneurs - company directors, partners in professional practices and sole traders - in the largest mapping exercise of its kind. (ANI)