ABSTRACT
Immigrants in the United States take distinctive paths towards economic assimilation because they have different experiences in the labor market from those of both the majority and other native-born minorities. Immigrants are compelled to have marginal occupations due partially to their lack of resources (e.g., labor market information), and partially to their insufficient language skills or untransferable mechanical skills. With these handicaps in the mainstream labor market, immigrants tend to pursue alternative occupations to overcome their marginal occupational positions. The alternative occupation is often found in entrepreneurship and creates a tendency toward over representation of immigrants in entrepreneurship (Light and Sanchez, 1987; Light, 1980; Portes and Manning, 1986; Wilson and Portes, 1980).
