Immigrants' pathways to business ownership: A comparative ethnic perspective

This paper provides a comparative perspective of pathways to entrepreneursh ip among Hispanic (mostly Mexican), Korean, non-Hispanic white, and Middle- Eastern/South-Asian entrepreneurs to identify common and unique circumstanc es conducive to business ownership. A stratified random sample business sur vey conducted in an immigrant neighborhood in Chicago is analyzed, to deter mine whether employment in a co-ethnic firm and informal self-employment. s erve as a stepladder to business ownership. The blocked mobility hypothesis is examined by considering self-reports about reasons becoming self-employ ed. Results show that the informal economy is a common pathway to steady se lf-employment. for Hispanics, whereas entry through employment in a co-ethn ic firm was more common among Koreans than immigrants from Mexico, the Midd le East, and South Asia. Koreans see business ownership as a way to overcom e blocked mobility, bur: virtually all desire their offspring to acquire "g ood jobs" in the open labor market. For Hispanics, business ownership is no t solely an instrument for overcoming discrimination, but rather a strategy for intergenerational mobility.