Entrepreneurship, transnationalism, and development

This article reviews the debate on economic and social consequences of immigrant entrepreneurship as well as theories advanced to explain different levels of self-employment among immigrant and ethnic minorities. We examine the impact of professional and entrepreneurial migration on sending countries from the viewpoint of traditional theories of the brain drain as well as from that of the more recent transnational perspective. Finally, we present the latest data on the effects of self-employment on income levels for various immigrant and ethnic groups. Results confirm the conclusion of a consistently positive net effect, both for annual incomes and hourly earnings. Implications of these results for theories of immigrant adaptation and policies implemented by sending and receiving countries are discussed.