Location and entrepreneurship among new immigrants in Israel and Canada

Self-employment among new immigrants in Israel and Canada is compared, and the influence of different urban settings within these countries is examined according to data of national censuses from the early 1980s. A slightly higher propensity of immigrants in Israel to become self-employed was due to their higher tendency to engage in white-collar self-employment activities. Immigrants in Canada were more active in typical distribution and blue-collar ethnic entrepreneurial niches. The larger metropolitan areas offered ample opportunities for immigrant entrepreneurs in distribution, while other centers offered fewer such opportunities, but provided entrepreneurial niches for immigrants in white-collar services and in blue-collar activities. In both countries, highly educated immigrants tended slightly more than others to become self-employed, so that entrepreneurship did not serve as a route of advancement for the less educated immigrants only. -Authors