Estimating the Contribution of Immigrant Business Owners to the U.S. Economy

Using data from three large nationally representative government datasets — the 2000 Census 5% Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS), the 1996-2007 Current Population Survey (CPS), and the 1992 Characteristics of Business Owners (CBO) — this study examines the contribution of immigrant businesses to the U.S. economy. According to Census 2000, immigrants constitute 12.2 percent of the total U.S. work force, and 12.5 percent of the total population of U.S. business owners. Business income generated by immigrant business owners totals $67 billion, representing 11.6 percent of U.S. business income.
Immigrant business ownership is geographically concentrated in a few states.

A copy of the report is located here (PDF) and the research summary can be found here (PDF).