A new report shows that foreign-born women play a much larger role in the United States economy than many realize. The report, “Our American Immigrant Entrepreneurs: The Women”, published on December 8, 2011, by the Immigration Policy Center, describes a quiet, and largely unnoticed by the public, revolution of immigrant women’s business ownership over the past decade.

In 2000, 575,740 foreign‐born women who immigrated as adults reported that they were self‐employed in their own incorporated or unincorporated businesses, which is the census category that researchers use to measure entrepreneurship. In 2010, 40 percent of all immigrant business owners were women – 980,575 immigrant women compared to 1,451,091 immigrant men. Also in 2010, 20 percent of all women business owners were foreign-born.

Today, immigrant women entrepreneurs abound in every region of the United States. In fact, the ten states where the most immigrant woman‐owned businesses are located include states in each region of the country. The top three cities are Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, DC. Several businesses owned by immigrant women are making their way into the lists of top‐grossing firms in areas such as technology.

Immigrant and native‐born women’s business‐ownership rates were roughly equivalent in 2000, at 5 percent of women who were employed for each group. By 2010, however, immigrant women’s entrepreneurship rates had grown to more than 9 percent, while the native‐born women’s rate grew to just 6.5 percent. Not only had foreign‐born women outpaced native‐born women, but their rates only trail foreign‐born men by less than 4 percentage points. Moreover, business ownership for women of color – both native‐born and foreign‐born – was increasing at six times the rate of ownership by other demographic groups during the first decade of the twenty‐first century.

However, business success is not easy to achieve, the report reveals. Of the immigrant women interviewed, many faced gender bias and difficulties securing start-up capital. Many women also reported that banks were hesitant to provide start-up funds due to the small size of their businesses. Yet, through their own determination and help from friends, associations, networks, colleagues and families, these women were able to establish successful businesses.

One of the women profiled in the report, entrepreneur Rubina Chaudhary, president of MARRS Services, Inc., a Management, Engineering, and Environmental firm, discussed her enterprise. “MARRS employs 50 full time and part-time professional and support staff of which 78% are U.S. citizens, 54% are U.S. born citizens and 36% are women. I am grateful for the opportunities that I, an immigrant woman in the U.S., have had to not only achieve my goal of providing for my children’s education but also to have the opportunity to create jobs and help others, native born and immigrants, men and women, students and entrepreneurs.”

After surviving the challenges that business ownership entails, the women profiled in the report have created scores of new jobs, helped stabilize neighborhoods, created products that consumers enjoy, built major infrastructure projects, and invested in a wide range of charitable social‐justice projects. Keenly aware of the advantages that business ownership brings, these women want to see an easier and more transparent process for their entrepreneurial successors, the report states. The authors of the report make the following recommendations:

• Make startup capital easier to access – and in larger amounts.
• Remove or reform bureaucratic hurdles to startups.
• Provide clearer information on local, state, and federal regulations.
• Given the realities of discrimination, renew efforts to support set‐asides, based on gender as well as nativity and race.
• Continue to address barriers to women’s success in the conventional workplace.
• Accelerate attempts to make it easier to balance paid employment with family demands.

Attorneys at I.S. Law Firm are dedicated to promoting women- and minority-owned small businesses. We have helped many foreign-born entrepreneurs to establish their businesses in the United States and obtain investor and other visas. Please contact us for a consultation today: 703-527-1779 or via e-mail: law@islawfirm.com.