• Immigrants often have personal characteristics similar to those of entrepreneurs.
  
  
• In every decennial census from 1880 to 1990, immigrants are more likely to be self-employed than natives.
  
  
• Data are sorely lacking on the number of jobs and the amount of wealth that immigrant entrepreneurs create, on the forward and backward economic linkages they foster within the nation's economy, and on the export/import trade they develop with their home countries.
  
  
• Impressionistic data indicate that immigrant firms are usually quite small and tend to employ co-ethnics and family. Nevertheless, they are sufficiently powerful in the aggregate to have revitalized many neighborhoods, particularly in hard-hit urban areas.
  
  
• Evidence suggests that over the last three decades, immigrants have played a significant role in reversing the nationwide decline in the rate of non-farm self-employment.
  
  
• There are great variations in the self-employment rates of different immigrant and ethnic groups. Researchers disagree about the reason for this variation, with some proposing that it is the result of the human or financial capital of individual immigrants, and others suggesting that immigrant communities are themselves differential sources of entrepreneurial energy.
  
  
• Researchers also disagree about the nature and potential of the immigrant firm. Overall, the immigrant firm seems neither to exploit nor favor co-ethnics, while offering the self-employed an opportunity for socio-economic advancement.
  
  
• If the social capital embedded in relationships of solidarity and trust among co-ethnics is in fact a significant source of economic strength, it may be a key "missing ingredient" in minority poverty analyses, which have typically focused on perceived individual or societal flaws, rather than on the communities within which individuals live.

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