Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship and business creation is fundamental to a healthy economy. Companies less than five years old create an average of 1.5 million new jobs for Americans each year.† Immigrants in particular play an important role in creating jobs as they are more likely to start a new business than the rest of the population. Despite this, the United States lacks a startup visa to welcome immigrant entrepreneurs with a proven idea and solid investment. This results in many business owners struggling to stay—at a cost to our economy and its workers.
† Jason Wiens and Chris Jackson, “The Importance of Young Firms for Economic Growth,” September 13, 2015. Available online.
Local Celebrity Chef Dan Wu Talks Immigrant Entrepreneurship
“When we think about other people’s cultures, the first entry point we have – before music, before dance, before literature, before language – is food,” says Dan Wu, a private chef, MasterChef contestant, and Chinese immigrant who lives in Lexington. “What do you know about Thailand? You know pad thai. Read More
A Student of U.S. Immigration Points to Economic Impact
Qingfang Wang had already started a promising career at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, one of Asia’s top-ranked think tanks, when the University of Georgia offered her a fellowship for a PhD in geography. She jumped at the chance. “The U.S. has the best higher-education system,” she says. “I… Read More
An Open Letter from 1,470 Economists on Immigration
p.article__date { display:none; } Dear Mr. President, Majority Leader McConnell, Minority Leader Schumer, Speaker Ryan, and Minority Leader Pelosi: The undersigned economists represent a broad swath of political and economic views. Among us are Republicans and Democrats alike. Some of us favor free markets while others have championed… Read More
Smuggled Across the Border, Mexican Entrepreneur a Testament to Hard Work
When Jorge Peralta was 9 years old, his mother flew him and his brother from Peru to Mexico, bundled them into the back of someone’s car in Tijuana, and told them to pretend to be asleep. Peralta remembers a border officer shining a flashlight in his face before waving the… Read More
Travel Site Founder: America Must Remain Place People ‘Aspire to Come to’
For Ahmed Bhuiyan, starting YourTripGuru, an online travel-planning site, was just the latest of his adventures since moving to the Bronx from Bangladesh at the age of 8. The startup also makes him part of a proud tradition of U.S. immigrants. In the United States, immigrants are… Read More
Venezuelan Drives Business Growth in Rural Indiana
Had it not been for a dramatic kidnapping, Daniela Vidal might never have left Venezuela. A trained chemical engineer, she had a good job in product development for Procter & Gamble. But when her fiancé was taken by guerrillas during a fishing trip on the Colombian border and held in… Read More
Somali Asylee Now Creates Dozens of U.S. Jobs
Abdirahman Kahin came to the United States from Africa in 1996 seeking asylum. Today, he is a successful entrepreneur and the CEO of Afro Deli, a fast, casual restaurant with two locations in Minneapolis. “We’re about to open a third location at the airport,” he says, “and we’re approaching $2… Read More
An Immigrant Helps Entrepreneurs, They Help the Economy
For Karla Boldery, a Mexican immigrant and business coach, how to make business development easier for immigrants is the million-dollar question. How to improve immigration reform, she says, is “the twenty-million-dollar question.” For the past seven years, Boldery has worked in innovation and technology business development. She received a… Read More
University Advisor Fears Effect on U.S. Students as Foreign Applications Drop
Alpona Stamboldjiev, an Indian native who advises engineering students at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, fears that some of the school’s most promising graduates won’t invest their skills in the United States economy. “We have a very large population of international students, especially in engineering,” she says. “Now, because of the… Read More
‘We’re Working, Staying out of Trouble,’ Says DACA Recipient
When Radi finished high school, she longed to go to college. But as an undocumented immigrant, she didn’t have the same opportunities as her friends, and for years she waited tables at a local restaurant. Things finally changed with the implementation of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a 2012… Read More
Immigrants Create American Jobs
How many jobs do immigrant entrepreneurs create? The data shows that firms owned by immigrants provide millions of jobs for U.S. workers and generate billions of dollars in annual income. With new business formation slowing in the United States, immigrant entrepreneurs have a critical role in many parts of the country, creating jobs for all Americans.
What percent of businesses are owned by immigrants?
The act of moving to another country is inherently courageous and risky. So, it comes as no surprise that immigrants tend to be more entrepreneurial than the rest of the population. In 2019, immigrant entrepreneurs made up 21.7 percent of all business owners in the United States, despite making up just over 13.6 percent of the population and 17.1 percent of the U.S. labor force.
Where Immigrants Are Most Entrepreneurial, 2019
Immigrants and the Recovery from the Great Recession
Foreign-born entrepreneurs and the jobs they created were instrumental in the recovery from the Great Recession. Between 2007 and 2011, immigrant entrepreneurs founded a large share of new businesses across the country and in several key states.
Share of New Businesses Founded by Immigrants in Select States, 2007-2011
Which Industries Are Immigrant Businesses Most Prevalent?
As important as the frequency with which immigrants start businesses is the diversity of fields in which they start them. Immigrants start more than 25 percent of all businesses in seven of the eight sectors that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics expects to grow the fastest over the next decade. They also play a large role in founding both Main Street businesses1 and high-tech firms.2
Sources:
1 David Dyssegaard Kallick, “Bringing Vitality to Main Street: How Immigrant Small Businesses Help Local Economies Grow,” New York: Fiscal Policy Institute and Americas Society/Council of the Americas, 2015. Available online.
2 Vivek Wadhwa et al., “America’s New Immigrant Entrepreneurs: Part I,” SSRN Scholarly Paper (Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network, 2007). Available online.
Share of Businesses Started by Immigrant Entrepreneurs in Seven Key Sectors, 2007-2011
Immigrants Found both Main Street Businesses and High-Tech Firms
Business Ownership Among Immigrant Groups
Looking at specific ethnic and national origin groups within the immigrant population, we find that many exhibit entrepreneurship rates higher than the native-born. At right we highlight the particular contributions of Middle Eastern business owners in Detroit, a group frequently credited with helping to spur the city’s recent economic comeback.
Sources:
3 Steve Tobocman, “Guide to Immigrant Economic Development,” Welcoming America, accessed July 5, 2016. Available online.
4 New American Economy, "Reason for Reform: Entrepreneurship," October 2016. Available online.
Entrepreneurship Rates for Immigrant Subgroups, 2014
Immigrants and the Fortune 500
Consistent with past NAE research, a significant number of firms on the most recent Fortune 500 list were founded by immigrants or their children. These companies make enormous contributions to both the U.S. and global economy. They also live on beyond their founders, generating jobs and revenue long after their visionaries retire or move on.
Visa Obstacles
Currently, there is no visa for those who want to come to the United States, start a company, and create jobs for U.S. workers. To access a visa, many immigrant entrepreneurs choose to sell a majority stake in their company and then apply for a visa as a high-skilled worker rather than as the owner of the firm. Our broken H-1B visa system, however, means that many entrepreneurs cannot get a visa before the cap is exhausted each year. In 2016, the White House proposed a rule that would make it easier for entrepreneurs to remain in the country, but it is clear a more permanent, legislative fix is needed.5
Sources:
5 Issie Lapowski, “White House Proposes a New Immigration Rule for Entrepreneurs,” WIRED, accessed December 14, 2016. Available online.
6“USCIS Completes the H-1B Cap Random Selection Process for FY 2016,” USCIS, accessed December 14, 2016. Available online.
Low-Skilled Entrepreneurship
Immigrant entrepreneurs are hardly a monolithic group. While much of the attention is focused on high-skilled foreign-born entrepreneurs that drive innovation in Silicon Valley, immigrant entrepreneurs with humbler backgrounds continue to play critical roles in the U.S. economy. Founding retail shops, restaurants, and personal service businesses, these immigrant entrepreneurs help towns and cities across the United States stay vibrant. In sum, the over 2.1 million immigrant entrepreneurs with less than a college degree have a significant economic impact, creating billions of dollars in economic activity and providing jobs to thousands of Americans.
Top Industries Among Immigrant Entrepreneurs with Less than a Bachelor’s Degree, 2015
Entrepreneurship Rates of Workers in Various Demographic Groups, 2015
Business Income of Less-Skilled Immigrant Entrepreneurs, 2015
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