The Rise of Idaho Immigrant Entrepreneurs

In honor of Immigrant Heritage Month, we are celebrating the contribution of immigrant entrepreneurs in the U.S. and in Idaho. When compared to native-born citizens there's been dramatic growth in self-employment among immigrants in the United States, due to the strict enforcement of immigration policies, language barriers, and low access to capital. Pushing many to find an alternative form of making a living, through self-employment.

As seen by the graph listed below, outlined by the 2022 Kauffman Report, “Job Creation by Firm Age: Recent Trends in the United States.”The rate of new entrepreneurs by nativity from 1996-2021 has nearly doubled.

After attending the SOLE summit for LBAN at Stanford the Idaho Hispanic Foundation gained valuable insights that shed light on the entirety of Latino Entrepreneurship in the United States. Latino-owned businesses are responsible for a staggering $800 billion annual contribution to the US economy, but Latino, especially Latina-owned businesses are the main demographic being affected by lower loan approval rates and limited access to growth-enabling contracts when compared to their non-Latino/Hispanic owned businesses counterparts.

Idaho has a considerably large immigrant community, and entrepreneurship is the driving agent of job growth in the state.  According to the American Immigration Council, “It is hard to overstate the importance of entrepreneurship since new businesses are the main driver of job growth in the United States. Immigrants play a particularly important role in this—founding businesses at far higher rates than the U.S. population overall. Today, millions of American workers are employed at immigrant-founded and immigrant-owned companies”. Idaho immigrant entrepreneurs make up 8.5% of the entire population share for Idaho and bring in a total of 242.9 million in business income.

Supporting these entrepreneurs with targeted financial/educational resources, entrepreneurial support, and equity will get them past the initial micro and macro economical challenges, helping them create jobs, drive innovation, and culturally enrich communities within the state of Idaho and the U.S.