Self-employment of immigrants and natives in Sweden – a multilevel analysis

Abstract

Recent research suggests that self-employment among immigrants is due to a combination of multiple situational, cultural and institutional factors, all acting together. By using multilevel regression and unique data on the entire population of Sweden for the year 2007, this study attempts to quantify the relative importance for the self-employed of embeddedness in ethnic contexts (country of birth) and regional business and public regulatory frameworks (labour market areas). This information indicates whether the layers under consideration are a valid construct of the surroundings that influence individual self-employment.The results show that 10 % (female) and 8% (men) of the total variation in individual differences in self-employment can be attributed to country of birth. When labour market areas are included in the analyses the share of the total variation increases to 14 % for women and 12 % for men. The results show that the ethnic context and the economic environment play a minor role in understanding individual differences in self-employment levels. The results can have important implications when planning interventions or other actions focusing on self-employment as public measures to promote self-employment often are based on geographic areas and ethnic contexts.2

Immigrant Entrepreneurship and Economic Adaptation: A Critical Analysis

“…Third, as in the case of many other processes in social sciences and economics in particular, the relationship of interest is of a two-way nature: entrepreneurship activity influences immigrants' economic adaptation, but also the process of immigrant's economic adaptation affects the likelihood of business creation, maintenance and development (Ohlsson, Broomé & Bevelander, 2012;Andersson & Hammarstedt, 2015). In this sense, the self-employment propensity rises with the time spent in the host country, as an immigrant gains human, financial, cultural and social capital and the needed experience to start a business (Caparrós Ruiz, 2010).…”

Revisiting native and immigrant entrepreneurial activity

“…Revisiting native and immigrant entrepreneurial activity ones estimated for Sweden, where the explained variance amounts to 7.6 % for men, and to 9.8 % for women (see Ohlsson et al 2012).…”

Formal Education and New Openings For Self-Employment Amongst Foreign-Born Persons in the Swedish Healthcare Sector

“…The concept of the 'ethnic economy' has thus been used in the discussions on the overrepresentation of ethnic groups in certain industries, particularly within an American context (Zhou 2004). Culture, access to information, loyal ethnic customs, pooled capital and cheap flexible labour have been identified as key elements in this ethnic economy (Bonacich and Modell 1980;Borjas 1986;Waldinger et al 1990;Ohlsson, Broomé, and Bevelander 2012). Overall, writers in the field have tended either to portray immigrants as successful entrepreneurs on the basis of the effective supportive social networks or to see them as forced into self-employment because of the existing barriers in the labour market.…”

“…Immigrants' human capital might not be transferable, or not acknowledged, to the Swedish labour market (cf. Hammarstedt 2001Hammarstedt , 2004Hammarstedt , 2006Ohlsson et al 2012). This conclusion is supported by previous studies in, for example, the United Kingdom (Clark and Drinkwater 2000), which show that differences in an individual's expected earnings in paid employment and self-employment correlate with self-employment decisions.…”