In a recently published article, Abu Bakkar Siddique, Sandip Sureka, and Jim Witte examine the relationship between immigrant populations and entrepreneurship in U.S. metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) between 2000 and 2022. Their findings suggest that higher proportions of immigrants at the MSA level are significantly linked to increased overall self-employment rates. The analysis indicates that immigrants are more likely to become entrepreneurs and contribute to broader entrepreneurial activity, potentially creating additional employment opportunities for native-born individuals rather than displacing them.
Abu Bakkar Siddique is a Mason alumnus and now Assistant Professor at Florida Atlantic University. Sandip Sureka is the Shrivastava Family Graduate Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Immigration Research at the IIR. Jim Witte, Emeritus Faculty at Mason, is the former director of the Institute for Immigration Research (IIR).
Special thanks to Dr. Maurice Kugler and Dr. Wenjing Wang for their contributions to an earlier manuscript version, and to the Shrivastava Family Foundation and The Immigrant Learning Center Inc. for their financial support.
Click here to read the article published in Population, Space and Place.
August 04, 2025