Do the Falling Earnings of Immigrants Apply to Self-employed Immigrants?

After controlling for various other factors, recent immigrants (those arriving within the last five years) are as likely to be self-employed as the native-born and, over time spent in the country, are more likely to become self-employed. Recent immigrants in the 1990s were far more likely to be self-employed than the native-born. Successive cohorts of recent immigrants have fared progressively worse in the paid labour market compared with paid native-born workers. This is not the case in the self-employed workforce. Although self-employed recent immigrants typically report lower net self-employment income upon entry than the self-employed native-born, the gap has not grown. Instead, it has followed a cyclical movement: narrowing at the peak, and widening in times of weaker economic activity.