IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/entreg/v17y2005i5p389-404.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ethnic group size, linguistic isolation, and immigrant entrepreneurship in the USA

Author

Listed:
  • Marie T. Mora
  • Alberto Dávila

Abstract

Using a sample of immigrant men in US census data from the early and late 1900s and available in the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS), this study explores: (1) whether immigrant entrepreneurship is positively affected by ethnic group size and linguistic isolation; (2) how sensitive these relationships are to English-language proficiency; and (3) if these relationships have remained stable over time. The empirical results indicate that the size of the local ethnic population does not enhance immigrant self-employment for either English-proficient or limited-English-proficient (LEP) men in the USA. In addition, while linguistic isolation in the local labour pool seems to promote entrepreneurship among English-fluent immigrants in certain cases, it appears to hinder business formation among the LEP. Finally, comparing the results across time-periods is consistent with the premise that rising xenophobia pushes a disproportionate share of the LEP into self-employment.

Suggested Citation

  • Marie T. Mora & Alberto Dávila, 2005. "Ethnic group size, linguistic isolation, and immigrant entrepreneurship in the USA," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(5), pages 389-404, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:entreg:v:17:y:2005:i:5:p:389-404
    DOI: 10.1080/08985620500275612
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/08985620500275612
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/08985620500275612?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ratan J. S. Dheer, 2018. "Entrepreneurship by immigrants: a review of existing literature and directions for future research," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 555-614, September.
    2. Qingfang Wang, 2010. "Immigration and Ethnic Entrepreneurship: A Comparative Study in the United States," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(3), pages 430-458, September.
    3. Xiahai Wei & Yang Jiao & Glenn Growe, 2019. "Language skills and migrant entrepreneurship: evidence from China," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 53(4), pages 981-999, December.
    4. Alessandro Arrighetti & Daniela Bolzani & Andrea Lasagni, 2014. "Beyond the enclave? Break-outs into mainstream markets and multicultural hybridism in ethnic firms," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(9-10), pages 753-777, December.
    5. Korpi, Martin & Hedberg, Charlotta & Pettersson, Katarina, 2013. "Immigrant Women and Entrepreneurship: A Study of the Health Care Sector in Sweden, 2002-2006," SULCIS Working Papers 2013:3, Stockholm University, Linnaeus Center for Integration Studies - SULCIS.
    6. Boyd, Monica, 2009. "Language at Work: The Impact of Linguistic Enclaves on Immigrant Economic Integration," CLSSRN working papers clsrn_admin-2009-50, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 25 Sep 2009.
    7. Francine Schlosser, 2012. "Taking an Active Approach in Entrepreneurial Mentoring Programmes Geared towards Immigrants," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, vol. 21(2), pages 201-221, September.
    8. Acs, Zoltan & Virgill, Nicola, 2010. "Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries," Foundations and Trends(R) in Entrepreneurship, now publishers, vol. 6(1), pages 1-68, February.
    9. Shaomeng Jia & Joshua K. Bedi, 2022. "To Assimilate or Not to Assimilate? A Cross-country Study on Assimilating Entrepreneurial Tendencies," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 37(Spring 20), pages 1-31.
    10. Agnieszka Brzozowska, 2018. "Vietnamese and Chinese Culture and Motives for Being an Entrepreneur Among Immigrants From Vietnam and China Settled in Poland (Wietnamska i chinska kultura oraz motywy przedsiebiorcze wsrod imigranto," Research Reports, University of Warsaw, Faculty of Management, vol. 2(29), pages 33-40.
    11. Sinkovics, Noemi & Reuber, A. Rebecca, 2021. "Beyond disciplinary silos: A systematic analysis of the migrant entrepreneurship literature," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 56(4).
    12. Ilhan-Nas, Tulay & Sahin, Kader & Cilingir, Zuhal, 2011. "International ethnic entrepreneurship: Antecedents, outcomes and environmental context," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(6), pages 614-626.
    13. Scheller, Friedrich, 2017. "The ambiguous role of ethnic context: A multi-level analysis of the relationship between group size and labor market integration of three immigrant groups in Germany," Duisburger Beiträge zur soziologischen Forschung 2017-03, University of Duisburg-Essen, Institute of Sociology.
    14. Bárbara J. Robles & Héctor Cordero-Guzmán, 2007. "Latino Self-Employment and Entrepreneurship in the United States: An Overview of the Literature and Data Sources," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 613(1), pages 18-31, September.
    15. Mai Camilla Munkejord, 2015. "Modes of Entry to Male Immigrant Entrepreneurship in a Rural Context: Start-up Stories from Northern Norway," Entrepreneurial Business and Economics Review, Centre for Strategic and International Entrepreneurship at the Cracow University of Economics., vol. 3(3), pages 143-160.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:entreg:v:17:y:2005:i:5:p:389-404. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/TEPN20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.