The Taking Care of Business project explores the origins of many British companies that were founded by immigrants and have since become household names, the AFP news agency has reported.
One example is the retailer Marks & Spencer, which was co-founded by Michael Marks, who was born in Poland and later immigrated to Britain.
Né Michał Marks, he was born into a Polish Ashkenazi Jewish family in Słonim, in what was then the multinational Russian Empire (now Grodno Region, Belarus).
He emigrated to Britain around 1882 and moved to Leeds where a company called Barran was known to employ Jewish immigrants.
In 1894, Marks decided that if he was to expand his business further, he would need a partner, which led to him meeting cashier Thomas Spencer and the rest is history.
The exhibition, which is housed at the Migration Museum based inside a south London shopping centre, also retraces the journeys of dozens of migrants who may not be known by name but are among those who came to the UK to seek refuge from oppressive regimes, escape poverty or simply to study and launch a business, many of which were of Polish origin.
As of June 2021, there were around 700,000 Polish nationals living in the United Kingdom, according to the Statista website.
Between 2008 and 2019 the Polish population of the United Kingdom more than doubled, reaching a peak of over 1 million in 2017, and then decreased by June 2021.
One in seven British businesses has been either founded or co-founded by an immigrant, according to a study by the UK's Centre for Entrepreneurs.
The Taking Care of Business exhibition runs until late September.
(mo/gs)
Source: AFP, Wikipedia, statista.com