Immigrant entrepreneurship

Template:User sandbox Immigrant entrepreneurship refers to the founding or ownership of businesses by individuals who have immigrated to a country other than their country of birth. Notable examples include Andrew Carnegie, Alexander Graham Bell, and Elon Musk in the United States; Paul Julius Reuter, who built his news agency in Britain; and James de Rothschild, the Frankfurt-born banker who founded the French branch of the Rothschild dynasty; Lakshmi Mittal, who emigrated from India to build ArcelorMittal into one of the world's largest steel companies; and Liem Sioe Liong, who emigrated from China to Indonesia in 1936 and founded the Salim Group, which became the largest business conglomerate in Southeast Asia, and Helena Rubinstein, the Polish-born founder of a global cosmetics empire built across Australia, Europe, and the United States.

Patterns and prevalence

Research indicates that immigrants start businesses at higher rates than native-born populations in many developed countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.According to the OECD's International Migration Outlook 2024, there were an estimated 10 million migrant entrepreneurs across OECD countries in 2022, representing 17% of the self-employed, up from 11% in 2006, and migrant self-employment accounted for approximately 15% of total employment growth across OECD countries between 2011 and 2021. The pattern is not uniform, however, with significant variation across countries and regions.

In the United States specifically, a 2019 review published in IZA World of Labor, economist Magnus Lofstrom found that in the United States, the foreign-born share of business owners more than doubled between 1980 and 2010. A study using United States Census Bureau data found that immigrant entrepreneurs accounted for approximately 24% of new business founders between 1995 and 2008, with that share rising from 17% in 1995 to 27% in 2008. A separate analysis based on the American Community Survey found that by around 2010, immigrants represented approximately 18.2% of all United States business owners despite comprising 16.3% of the workforce, and started businesses at roughly double the rate of the native-born population.

Entrepreneurship by sector

Technology

Immigrant founders have played a prominent role in the technology industry. A disproportionate share of United States technology companies founded between 1995 and 2005 had at least one immigrant co-founder. Among venture capital-backed firms in the United States specifically, immigrants constituted approximately 30% of founders in 2005, modestly exceeding their overall share of entrepreneurial activity.

Finance and banking

Immigrant entrepreneurs have historically been significant in banking and financial services, including the establishment of several major European banking dynasties in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Media and entertainment

Film and television

Immigrant entrepreneurs played a formative role in the establishment of the American film industry. Harry Warner and his brothers, born in Poland and raised in the United States, founded Warner Bros. in 1923, one of the major Hollywood studios whose output shaped American cinema throughout the 20th century. In the modern era, Australian-born Rupert Murdoch became a naturalized United States citizen in 1985 and built News Corp and Fox Corporation into one of the most influential media conglomerates in the world.

Journalism

Hungarian-born Joseph Pulitzer immigrated to the United States in 1864, became a naturalized citizen in 1867, and went on to found the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and acquire the New York World, transforming both into major instruments of popular journalism. He endowed the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and established the Pulitzer Prize, awarded annually since 1917.

Digital media

Steve Chen, who immigrated from Taiwan to the United States as a child, co-founded YouTube in 2005, which was acquired by Google the following year for $1.65 billion.

Music

Cuban-born Emilio Estefan immigrated to Miami following the Cuban Revolution and co-founded the Miami Sound Machine, producing and developing artists including Gloria Estefan, Ricky Martin, Shakira, and Jennifer Lopez, and is widely credited with catalysing the crossover explosion of Latin music in the United States during the late 1990s. His wife Gloria Estefan, also Cuban-born, became one of the best-selling recording artists in history and received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 1993, awarded to exceptional naturalized United States citizens.

Retail and food

Immigrant-owned businesses are well represented in retail, hospitality, and food services across most developed economies, often serving both general consumer markets and co-ethnic communities. In the United States, construction, professional services, and other services each account for more than 15% of immigrant-owned businesses, with retail trade, health care, and accommodation also representing significant concentrations.

Entrepreneurship by diaspora

Several diaspora communities have demonstrated sustained rates of business creation across their host countries. This pattern is frequently attributed to co-ethnic networks, pooled capital, and trust-based commercial relationships that lower barriers to market entry.

Chinese diaspora

Substantial commercial presence has been documented across Southeast Asia, North America, and Australasia.

Indian diaspora

Activity is concentrated in technology, retail, and financial services, particularly in the United States and United Kingdom.

Lebanese diaspora

Established entrepreneurial networks are present across West Africa and Latin America.

Jewish diaspora

Historically significant involvement in finance, media, and retail has been documented across Europe and North America.

Hispanic diaspora

Considerable entrepreneurial presence exists in the United States, though outcomes vary significantly by national origin. Mexican immigrants represent the largest single source country group among United States immigrant business owners, accounting for approximately 23.4% of the total, though their business ownership rate falls below the national average, a pattern attributed largely to lower average levels of education and wealth and, for undocumented individuals, barriers related to legal status. Cuban immigrants, by contrast, show a substantially higher business ownership rate of 14.8%, with self-employment rates found to increase in areas of high Hispanic residential concentration.

Women immigrant entrepreneurs

Women have featured prominently among immigrant entrepreneurs across multiple sectors and host countries, though they remain underrepresented in the broader literature. Joyce Chen, who emigrated from China to the United States in 1949, founded restaurants, a cookware company, and a television programme credited with introducing Mandarin cuisine to American audiences. Amina Moghe Hersi, a Somali-Kenyan entrepreneur who emigrated to Uganda in 1998, built a multimillion-dollar business empire spanning real estate, hardware distribution, and manufacturing, and was named African Businesswoman of the Year by The New Economy in 2014.

Host country policies

Many developed countries have introduced special visa programs to attract immigrant entrepreneurs, though the effectiveness of such programs remains an active area of research.

Academic perspectives

Self-employment has been identified in the academic literature as a significant pathway for labour market integration among immigrant populations. Research indicates, however, that entrepreneurship yields stronger economic outcomes for high-skilled immigrants than for those with lower levels of formal qualification. Studies based on United States data suggest that immigrant-founded businesses tend to show greater employment growth over the medium term compared to native-founded businesses, though without a corresponding advantage in payroll growth, and with higher rates of both failure and expansion relative to native-founded firms. Immigrant-owned businesses have also been found to export at higher rates than native-owned businesses, a pattern attributed to commercial networks, shared language, and cultural ties with countries of origin.

See also

• Minority business enterprise