Roughly one out of 10 immigrant workers are business owners with most turning to personal or family savings for startup capital.

That's according to a new SBA Office of Advocacy report titled Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners, and their Access to Financial Capital. The office used data from the 2007 U.S. Survey of Business Owners and the 1996–2010 Current Population Survey.

Besides personal and family savings, immigrants also used credit cards, bank loans, personal or family assets, and home equity loans to fund their small businesses.

Nearly 20% of immigrant-owned businesses started with $50,000 or more in startup capital, compared with 15.9% of non-immigrant-owned businesses, according to the report.

Businesses owned by immigrants had an average sales level of $435,000, roughly 70% of the average sales level of non-immigrant firms. They were also slightly more likely to hire employees than are non-immigrant-owned firms. However, they tended to hire fewer employees on average, the data showed.

Immigrant-owned businesses are more likely to export their goods and services. Among them, 7.1% export compared with only 4.4% for non-immigrant businesses.

The report noted that entrepreneurship among immigrants increased with maturity and married people were more likely to start a business.

Entrepreneurship rates were lower for high school graduates than for high school dropouts, but entrepreneurship rates were similar between those with some college and high school graduates, according to the data. College graduates had higher rates of entrepreneurship, and those with graduate degrees had the highest rates of entrepreneurship.

The research also showed that among immigrants, 52.1% owned a home compared with 70.8% of non-immigrants.

Instant Insights /

Immigrants Have Higher Business Ownership: SBA

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