A Myth Dies Hard

WALK through an immigrant neighborhood in any American city, and you’ll get an impression of intense entrepreneurial activity. Street vendors sell everything from produce to pajamas, while small shops and restaurants advertise in the community’s native language. Stories of immigrant businesses revitalizing neighborhoods have become a staple of news coverage on immigration.

Indeed, many conservatives cite immigrant entrepreneurship in reassuring those skeptical about the impact of mass immigration. “Today’s immigrants—be they Asian, European, or Latino—are refueling our entrepreneurial economy,” observes Joel Kotkin in Inc. magazine. The late economist Julian Simon argued that one of the reasons immigration should be increased was that “immigrants clearly have a higher propensity for selfemployment than do natives.” And California businessman Ron Unz goes even further, saying that “the overwhelming majority of California’s immigrants are self-reliant and entrepreneurial.”