Migrant Entrepreneurship in Spain: a Systematic Review

Abstract

Introduction: Spain became an immigrant receiving country in the mid-nineties of the 20th century, when foreign workers started arriving, attracted by the booming market for unskilled labour. They traditionally entered the secondary market as employees, showing a self-employment rate lower than that of natives. However, during the economic downturn, ethnic businesses significantly increased, adopting new strategies and proving the resilience of immigrant entrepreneurs.Method: This paper aims to gather peer-reviewed literature to investigate migrant entrepreneurship in Spain, and its implications in immigrant’s performance in the labour market. Thirty-nine papers met the criteria.Results: Results show that migrant entrepreneurs: (1) respond to necessity and opportunity (2) are mainly focused on open market, rather than on ethnic business; (3) seek support in transnational practices.Discussion and/or Conclusion: Our analysis shows that Spanish migrant entrepreneurs’ behavior is not fully fitting into the classical theoretical frameworks and that in general there is a certain overlapping or a new model arising. In fact, the crisis has brought changes to ethnic minority businesses and their vulnerability with higher turnover. But it also has brought opportunities, innovation, new niches, transnational focus, and certain ease in access to property.