Immigrants’ self-employment and entrepreneurship activities

The scale and nature of immigrant entrepreneurship has changed dramatically over the past two decades. For example, the share of immigrants among the self-employed has more than doubled in the European Union. At the same time, there is a small but growing body of evidence suggesting that contributions to innovation and job creation by immigrant entrepreneurs are increasing. Policy makers need to be aware of these trends so that policies and schemes for immigrant entrepreneurship are adjusted accordingly. This chapter presents comparable self-employment indicators for immigrants across countries, including self-employment rates, the proportion of self-employed immigrants with employees, sector and occupation. These data are complemented with insights gained from country-specific research on immigrant entrepreneurship.