Immigrant Entrepreneurs Prosper on Main Street
Immigrant Entrepreneurs Prosper on Main Street
The number of immigrant main street businesses grew in seven U.S. metropolitan areas that otherwise saw an overall decline in such businesses, reveals a new AS/COA and Fiscal Policy Institute report.
When Angel Taveras was growing up in Providence, R.I., in the 1980s, his youth baseball team was sponsored by Alan Jewelry, a local business, which played against the likes of Washington Park Woodworking. These days, sponsors include La Gran Parada restaurant, Reyes Market and other immigrant-owned businesses that have flourished in the city since the 1990s.
“Without immigrants and their entrepreneurial spirit, Providence and Rhode Island would be worse off,” said Mr. Taveras, who was mayor from 2011 until earlier this month and is himself the son of immigrants from the Dominican Republic.
In the U.S. from 2000 to 2013, including in 31 of the 50 largest metro areas, immigrants accounted for all the growth in so-called Main Street businesses, according to a new study based on analysis of census data. Such firms are grouped in three categories: lodging and food, retail and neighborhood services such as dry cleaning and beauty salons. Immigrants made up nearly one out of three owners of these small, independent businesses in 2013, said the report jointly prepared by the nonpartisan Fiscal Policy Institute and the Americas Society/Council of the Americas. That year, immigrants were 13% of the U.S. population and 16% of its labor force....
