Opportunity Entrepreneurship vs. Necessity Entrepreneurship: Immigrant Entrepreneurs in the European Union
Opportunity Entrepreneurship vs. Necessity Entrepreneurship: Immigrant Entrepreneurs in the European Union

Summary/Abstract: There are more than 23 million SMEs in the EU-28, representing the vast majority of entrepreneurs, about two-thirds of all jobs and an even larger share of new employment positions. The potential impact of the sector is even greater, since the same documents produced by the Commission show that 38% of Europeans said they would prefer self-employment, whereas only one-tenth of the working age population is actually engaged in this sector.Already at the beginning of 2016, there were more than 2 million self-employed immigrant workers. Moreover, according to the archives, this entrepreneurial reality is characterised by the following traits: a certain fragility; a reduced participation of women; the prevalence of low-skilled and less remunerative sectors of work; a young age of the workers; a prevalence of sole proprietorships / individual companies and, finally, a greater (or lesser) propensity to exercise an independent activity (depending on the areas of origin and/or settlement). At the same time, however, the data also show a strong capacity for renewal.The present short essay starting from the distinction between the so called “opportunity entrepreneurship” and the “necessity entrepreneurship” (where self-employment or entrepreneurship in traditional and less innovative sectors represents an alternative to unemployment caused by inadequate capital, non-recognition of educational qualifications or language problems) intends to provide a general frame of the phenomenon of immigrant entrepreneurship in the EU and contribute in stressing the potential role that immigrants could play inside and outside the host communities, as well as all these factors limiting the potential of immigrant entrepreneurs and constituting further barriers they have to overcome in order to start their businesses.

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