On December 08, 2009, President Obama outlined a proposal to encourage small business to hire workers in 2010 by opening lines of credit and offering tax breaks. The impact of this proposed measure will be different for foreign-born low-tech entrepreneurs and foreign-born high-tech entrepreneurs. Prior to the crisis, self-employment was spreading among foreign workers in USA and in Europe. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (2007) “the self-employment rate for foreign-born residents of the Unites States has grown faster that of native born residents over the past ten years”. Lack of access to employment opportunities commensurate with immigrants’ human capital may encourage them to look for self employment, business alternatives.
High-skill and low-skill immigrant entrepreneurs tend to concentrate in certain niches. For example, Salvadorian, Colombian and Dominican firms are concentrated in retail sales and business services (Robinson, 2005). Immigrant-owned firms are mainly retail, wholesale, personal and professional service enterprises and are typically operated by family members. The management structure is comprised of the immigrant owner and his/her close family members and relatives (Page and Plaza, 2006). Foreign-born founders of “high-impact” companies in high tech sectors are concentrated in business services and engineering services and located in the states with large foreign-born residents such as California and Texas. (Hart, Zoltan and Spencer, 2009).