Immigrants have a weak position in the labour market in most European countries. Many
have difficulties in establishing themselves in the labour market, the employment rate is low
and the hourly wages are generally lower than what could be expected from characteristics
(age, gender, education). Many have to rely on the social transfer payments including social
assistance. One way to avoid the problems in getting a job is to become self-employed. In
this paper we make use of two large data-sets to study self-employment among immigrants
in Denmark and Sweden. The three main issues covered are 1) if the immigrants are
overrepresented among the self-employed, 2) the characteristics of self-employed
immigrants, and 3) the incomes of the self-employed immigrants. In each case we compare
the situation in the two countries. The immigrants, especially immigrants from non-Western
countries, are overrepresented among the self-employed in both countries. The selfemployed
immigrants in both countries have relatively low incomes, lower than natives with
the corresponding characteristics.
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