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Self-employed Immigrants and Their Employees: Evidence from Swedish Employer-Employee Data

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  • Hammarstedt, Mats

    (Linnaeus University Centre for Discrimination and Integration Studies)

  • Miao, Chizheng

    (Linnaeus University Centre for Discrimination and Integration Studies)

Abstract

We present a study of immigrant self-employment in Sweden using the recent matched employer-employee data from 2014. We find large variations in self-employment rates among immigrant groups as well as between immigrants with different points for their time immigration to Sweden. High self-employment rates are found for male immigrants from the Middle East. Immigrants are less likely than natives to have employees in their firms but after controlling for firm characteristics we find that self-employed immigrants are more likely than self-employed natives to have employees. Especially non-European immigrants are more likely than natives to employ other immigrants, and even non-European and recently arrived immigrants, in their firms. Immigrants are more likely than natives to hire their spouses as employees. We conclude that self-employed immigrants play a role in the labour market integration of other immigrants. We also conclude that the family plays a central role for self-employment activities among immigrants and that more knowledge regarding the explanations behind the results is needed.

Suggested Citation

  • Hammarstedt, Mats & Miao, Chizheng, 2018. "Self-employed Immigrants and Their Employees: Evidence from Swedish Employer-Employee Data," Working Paper Series 1235, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1235
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    Cited by:

    1. Bastani, Spencer & Giebe, Thomas & Miao, Chizheng, 2020. "Ethnicity and tax filing behavior," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    2. Sari Pekkala Kerr & William R. Kerr, 2021. "Whose Job Is It Anyway? Coethnic Hiring in New US Ventures," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(1), pages 86-127.
    3. Green, David A. & Liu, Huju & Ostrovsky, Yuri & Picot, Garnett, 2023. "Are immigrants particularly entrepreneurial? Policy lessons from a selective immigration system," CLEF Working Paper Series 61, Canadian Labour Economics Forum (CLEF), University of Waterloo.
    4. Chizheng Miao, 2020. "Immigrant self‐employment and local unemployment in Sweden," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 88(3), pages 464-488, June.
    5. Rickne, Johanna, 2021. "Who Cleans My House If the Government Pays? Disadvantaged Labor Market Groups in the Tax-Subsidized Domestic Service Sector," IZA Policy Papers 171, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Mark Granberg & Niklas Ottosson & Ali Ahmed, 2020. "Do ethnicity and sex of employers affect applicants’ job interest? An experimental exploration," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 54(1), pages 1-10, December.
    7. Berggren, Niclas & Ljunge, Martin & Nilsson, Therese, 2022. "Immigrants’ Tolerance and Integration into Society," Working Paper Series 1447, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    8. Lina Aldén & Spencer Bastani & Mats Hammarstedt & Chizheng Miao, 2022. "Immigrant-native differences in long-term self-employment," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(3), pages 1661-1697, March.
    9. Aldén, Lina & Bastani, Spencer & Hammarstedt, Mats & Miao, Chizheng, 2020. "Ethnic Differences in Long-Term Self-Employment," Working Paper Series 1361, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    10. Rickne Johanna, 2021. "Who cleans my house if the government pays? Refugees, low-educated workers, and long-term unemployed in tax-subsidized domestic service firms," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 11(1), pages 1-37, May.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Self-employment; Immigrants; Employment; Employees; Sweden;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship

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