Migrant Entrepreneurship: Alternative Paradigms of Economic Integration

The economic integration of migrants offers opportunities and poses challenges to host societies all over the world. Migration has diverse and specific characteristics, and constitutes a pool of cheap workers at the lower end of the market, willing to do dirty, dangerous and dull work, as well as a growing pool of f lexible workers at the higher end of the skills set. Indeed, the vast majority of international migrants are economically active as wage earners, but in every country, a relatively small number choose self-employment and become entrepreneurs. This chapter seeks to highlight this particular form of economic integration of migrants for three reasons: (1) First, the economic impact of migrant entrepreneurs is significant, not only in terms of “traditional” micro-economic indicators-such as personal income, number of employees, added value, and so forth-but also in terms of innovation, market change, and larger economic outreach. Migrant entrepreneurs discover, develop, seize, and exploit new markets, with or without ethnically specific products, processes, and ways of doing business. Migrant entrepreneurs also help foster third-party entrepreneurial activitiesethnic and native alike.