Reconsidering Immigrant Entrepreneurship
An Examination of Self-Employment Among Natives
and the Foreign-Born


by Steven A. Camarota

January 2000


Table of Contents

List of Figure and Tables

Executive Summary

Findings
Why Study Immigrant Self-Employment?
Data and Methodology
What Explains the Myth of Immigrant Entrepreneurship?
Conclusion

Introduction

Why Study Immigrant Entrepreneurship?
Data and Methodology

Self-Employment over the Last Four Decades

Declining Immigrant Self-Employment
What Explains the Decline in Immigrant Entrepreneurship?

Full- and Part-Time Self-Employment Rates

Full-Time Self-Employment
Part-Time Self-Employment
Self-Employment by Year of Entry

Full- and Part-Time Self-Employment Income

Full-Time Self-Employment Income
Part-Time Self-Employment Income
Self-Employment Income by Year of Entry

Number of Employees

Socio-Economic Characteristics

Self-Employment by Age and Education
Self-Employment by Industry

Self-Employment by Geographic Area

Self-Employment by State
Self-Employment by Metropolitan Area
Self-Employment in the Central Cities

Self-Employment by Region and Country of Origin

Self-Employment by Region of Origin
Self-Employment by Country of Origin
What Explains the Differences Between Immigrant Groups

Illegal Immigrants

What Explains the Myth of Immigrant Entrepreneurship?

Conclusion

End Notes and References

Other Recent Publications


About the Author

Steven A. Camarota is Director of Research at the Center for Immigration Studies. He holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy Analysis from the University of Virginia. Dr. Camarota has testified before Congress and written extensively on the effects of low-skilled immigration on American workers. His most recent works from the Center are Importing Poverty: Immigration's Impact on the Size and Growth of the Poor Population in the United States, Immigrants in the United States 1998: A Snapshot of America's Foreign-born Population, and The Wages of Immigration: The Effect on the Low-Skilled Labor Market.

About the Center

The Center for Immigration Studies, founded in 1985, is a non-profit, non-partisan research organization in Washington, D.C., which examines and critiques the impact of immigration on the United States. It provides a variety of services for policymakers, journalists, and academics, including an e-mail news service, a monthly Backgrounder series and other publications, congressional testimony, and public briefings.


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