The impact of self-employment on the economic integration of immigrants: Evidence from Germany
Traditional approaches in migration studies suggest that self-employment and entrepreneurial activities enhance the perspectives of economic advancement of immigrants in host countries. Therefore, in many popular destinations in Western Europe and Northern America, policies encouraging the self-empl...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Cognitione Foundation for the Dissemination of Knowledge and Science
2019-01-01
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| Series: | Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://jemi.edu.pl/uploadedFiles/file/all-issues/vol15/issue2/JEMI_Vol15_Issue2_2019_Article1.pdf |
| _version_ | 1797641893844090880 |
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| author | Jan Brzozowski Anke Lasek |
| author_facet | Jan Brzozowski Anke Lasek |
| author_sort | Jan Brzozowski |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Traditional approaches in migration studies suggest that self-employment and entrepreneurial activities enhance the perspectives of economic advancement of immigrants in host countries. Therefore, in many popular destinations in Western Europe and Northern America, policies encouraging the self-employment of immigrants have been proposed. But does the self-employment contribute to the economic integration of immigrants? Is it a universal, one-way avenue that guarantees the successful insertion of foreigners in a new socio-economic environment? Based on the German Socio-Economic Panel dataset, this study empirically investigates the effect of self-employment on the economic integration of immigrants in one of the most important host countries in Europe. Our results demonstrate that the current self-employment status in Germany is associated with higher income in absolute and relative (self-assessment) terms. The immigrants with previous self-employment experience in Germany are less integrated than the average. This result indirectly shows that the business economy of immigrants is associated with a high risk of failure and not all self-employed individuals succeed in advancing in economic terms in a host country. Consequently, we argue that host countries should be more cautious in promoting entrepreneurship as the “perfect” and “universal” strategy that improves economic integration. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T13:52:17Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5f1a8b7f27ed48e7ace1ed52b5289e8c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2299-7326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T13:52:17Z |
| publishDate | 2019-01-01 |
| publisher | Cognitione Foundation for the Dissemination of Knowledge and Science |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation |
| spelling | doaj.art-5f1a8b7f27ed48e7ace1ed52b5289e8c2023-11-02T08:21:31ZengCognitione Foundation for the Dissemination of Knowledge and ScienceJournal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation2299-73262019-01-01152112810.7341/20191521The impact of self-employment on the economic integration of immigrants: Evidence from GermanyJan Brzozowski0Anke Lasek1 Department of European Studies, Cracow University of Economics, Rakowicka 27, 31-510 Kraków, Poland Cracow University of Economics, Rakowicka 27, 31-510 Kraków, Poland Traditional approaches in migration studies suggest that self-employment and entrepreneurial activities enhance the perspectives of economic advancement of immigrants in host countries. Therefore, in many popular destinations in Western Europe and Northern America, policies encouraging the self-employment of immigrants have been proposed. But does the self-employment contribute to the economic integration of immigrants? Is it a universal, one-way avenue that guarantees the successful insertion of foreigners in a new socio-economic environment? Based on the German Socio-Economic Panel dataset, this study empirically investigates the effect of self-employment on the economic integration of immigrants in one of the most important host countries in Europe. Our results demonstrate that the current self-employment status in Germany is associated with higher income in absolute and relative (self-assessment) terms. The immigrants with previous self-employment experience in Germany are less integrated than the average. This result indirectly shows that the business economy of immigrants is associated with a high risk of failure and not all self-employed individuals succeed in advancing in economic terms in a host country. Consequently, we argue that host countries should be more cautious in promoting entrepreneurship as the “perfect” and “universal” strategy that improves economic integration.http://jemi.edu.pl/uploadedFiles/file/all-issues/vol15/issue2/JEMI_Vol15_Issue2_2019_Article1.pdfimmigrant self-employmenteconomic integrationeconomic activity |
| spellingShingle | Jan Brzozowski Anke Lasek The impact of self-employment on the economic integration of immigrants: Evidence from Germany Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation immigrant self-employment economic integration economic activity |
| title | The impact of self-employment on the economic integration of immigrants: Evidence from Germany |
| title_full | The impact of self-employment on the economic integration of immigrants: Evidence from Germany |
| title_fullStr | The impact of self-employment on the economic integration of immigrants: Evidence from Germany |
| title_full_unstemmed | The impact of self-employment on the economic integration of immigrants: Evidence from Germany |
| title_short | The impact of self-employment on the economic integration of immigrants: Evidence from Germany |
| title_sort | impact of self employment on the economic integration of immigrants evidence from germany |
| topic | immigrant self-employment economic integration economic activity |
| url | http://jemi.edu.pl/uploadedFiles/file/all-issues/vol15/issue2/JEMI_Vol15_Issue2_2019_Article1.pdf |
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