Immigration and immigrant entrepreneurship have prompted a great deal of interest among a wide range of audiences, from academics and policymakers to the popular press and common people on the street. In the past two decades, immigrants have started a vast number of small businesses; they also have founded more than half of the “unicorn” startups valued at over $1 billion, and more than half of such unicorns list only immigrants as founders. Research has shown that immigrants are not just more likely to be entrepreneurs but also more likely to innovate. Considering this outsized representation of immigrants among entrepreneurs, identifying factors determining immigrants’ inclinations to start new ventures is very relevant for policymakers.

Using data compiled from multiple sources and leveraging advanced econometrics, a recent study in the highly regarded Journal of Business Venturing provides robust evidence to answer this question. The study found that while all immigrants are generally predisposed to new venture creation by virtue of their immigration experience, educated immigrants from countries that assign a higher value to entrepreneurialism are uniquely and especially likely to initiate new venture creation.

This study specifically examined the intersectional effects of immigrants’ higher education (as a resource and identity) and their entrepreneurial mindmaps (as created by their home country’s entrepreneurial culture) in the context of the host country’s state-level institutional environment (denoting prevalent power structures), on the probability of being an entrepreneur in the United States.

Unlike prior research, which frequently utilizes intersectionality theory to predict the compounding effects of multiple “oppressed” identities, this study provides novel insights into how intersectional effects can confer unique advantages to some U.S. immigrant groups. Further, instead of overemphasizing innate traits, such as race and gender, the study suggests the need to grant more consideration to dynamic contextual factors that also shape individual lived experiences, with the recognition that the globalizing era provides opportunities for people to develop and enact new identities that are no longer necessarily tied to traditionally defined ethno-linguistic, national, or cultural identities. Individuals, including immigrants, are not confined to their innate identities but can mold those identities to achieve desired outcomes. Such a perspective purposefully does not minimize the importance of oppressive power structures. As the research shows, some intersectional effects constrain entrepreneurship among specific groups. Yet by clarifying the concurrent influence of contextual factors, it demonstrates how the theorized effects persist even across identity (sub)categories. This highlights critical factors that can and do help people overcome institutional challenges. Policymakers can leverage this information to identify and address enablers and barriers to new venture creation.

In relation to immigrant entrepreneurship literature, this study demonstrates the enduring influence of cultural mindsets that immigrant entrepreneurs bring from their home countries to their destinations. Thus, immigrants’ risk-taking capacity and other entrepreneurial activities depend not only on their formal education but also on the informal mindmaps they have imbibed through cultures, customs, and traditions. By providing evidence of an embedded, intersectional identity of an “educated immigrant go-getter,” this study helps explain the widespread occurrence of immigrant entrepreneurship in the United States while simultaneously demonstrating the importance of formal institutional factors for determining entrepreneurship levels. Policymakers can use these insights to design interventions to attract, retain, train, mentor, and support immigrant entrepreneurs globally.