For three years, 31-year-old Francis Jimenea washed dishes, cleaned tables, sliced meat and chopped vegetables in a Jersey City restaurant. At the end of his 12-hour day he was exhausted and the meager $70 he brought home at night was not enough to support his family. So, with his friend Robert Pagayon, a 43-year-old former cab driver, he decided to open his own Filipino restaurant. They pooled their savings and hired people to run the daily operations of their business.

Speaking in Filipino, Jimenea, who came to the United States in 1997 from a small island in the Philippines, commented: “When you are a mere worker, the hours are long, the work is hard and the earnings surely do not go into your pocket.”

Like many other new immigrants, Jimenea has followed a common track of immigrant entrepreneurship: taking odd-jobs, gaining experience in a particular industry, then launching his own enterprise.

“Although I still do the same tasks, like grilling, mopping, and cooking, owning the business makes it very fulfilling,” Jimenea said. But, unlike his former life as an employee, where he felt undervalued, “Now I gross $900 to $1,000 a day, and $1,500 to $2,000 on weekends. I’m really happy.”

According to Muzaffar Chishti, director of the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) at New York University’s School of Law, immigrants are generally driven to self-employment because there is less pressure in the workplace—especially in industries with fixed hours—and, in most cases, no immigration documents are required.

“[The biggest advantages among] immigrant entrepreneurs is their willingness to work whatever type of job,” said Chishti during a seminar sponsored by Independent Press Association -New York. “Immigrants arrive to the city with their dreams, and they make sure those dreams happen. The hardships experienced in the mainstream drive immigrants to excel.” According to him, immigrant workers who are underpaid and overworked for a long time are most likely to embark on entrepreneurship. “It’s a way out for laborers,” he said.

A study on migration, conducted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) in 1997, concluded that immigrant entrepreneurship could be attributed to “a combination of their social cohesiveness and the difficulties, including exploitation, they encountered in the broader labor market.”

Braving sub-zero weather, Virgil Borta, a Romanian immigrant, positions his cart between a postal box and a public telephone booth on the corner of 58th Street and 8th Avenue. Borta sells coffee, bagels, pretzels and hotdogs to Manhattan white-collar workers.

“Although I stand here long before most people come to work in the morning, I still find my own little business better and more profitable than slicing green vegetables, which I did for 12 years,” said the 53-year-old vendor. Borta, who came to the United States 20 years ago, fled Romania with two friends by swimming to the Yugoslavian border. “I tried all kinds of jobs here in New York. Name it, and I have done it,” said Borta, who used to be a cook, a dishwasher and a seafarer. He saved his money for years in order to buy his cart for $15,000 and start his own business. He makes on average $150 a day in wintertime and $200 in the summer.

Ethnic synergy

Living in ethnic enclaves, immigrant groups develop a strong synergy. It’s common practice for Korean grocers to hire Mexican workers and for Italian pizzerias to employ Egyptian bakers. In Brooklyn, two Russian doctors, Alexander Grigorian and Serguie Kopetskov, saw an entrepreneurial opportunity in the influx of Filipino nurses to fill the void for medical practitioners in U.S. hospitals. They set up a nurse staffing agency to recruit Filipino nurses. Angie Abella, a shareholder in the agency explains: “The company is owned by Russians and recruits nurses from many countries.” Today, the agency has more than 100 nurses—Filipinos, Croatian, and Tibetan immigrants, as well as native Americans.

Varying Levels

While it is not surprising to find that immigrant communities take care of their own, why are some ethnic groups more entrepreneurial than others? Why do certain groups concentrate in specific businesses, like Koreans in dry-cleaning and as greengrocers, Pakistanis and Egyptians in taxi services, and Indians running newspaper stands?

“Some ethnic groups are better educated than the others,” explains Chishti, “or have a solid know-how to run a specific business.” He cites the Korean dry-cleaning shops around the city as an example. According to the CEIP study, Koreans have succeeded in this business because they “drew on Korean traditions of working long hours and enlisting family labor.” Their tendency to save, no-interest loans from family and friends and rotating credit associations have also helped them finance their ventures.

“I started this dry-cleaning business with a small amount of money. But the most important thing was the information I got from my friend. He taught me his trade secrets, even though he runs the same business,” said Mr. Kim, whose shop is on 82nd Street. “My friend was not a competitor but a supporter.”

The down side

Researchers claim that immigrant entrepreneurship also has its down sides, which are often overlooked. Immigrant businesses, typical of ethnic enclaves, can become “clannish and exclusionary,” making employment opportunities more inaccessible to the native-born. Familial and ethnic ties may also result in exploitation—especially in businesses that hire undocumented workers—despite the enforcement of labor and anti-discrimination laws.

“Exploitation in immigrant enclaves is obviously not good for workers, employers or the industry,” Chishti said. “But, the enforcement of labor laws can be high maintenance for these businesses, since it requires time and money, and other external disturbances.” As well, according to him, recent changes in immigration policies have greatly affected immigrant entrepreneurship. “With the backlog for labor certification, workers have been at the mercy of their employers,” he said. “Some entrepreneurs are forced into [supporting an] illegal labor force.”

An economic plus

Overall, the economic contribution of immigrant entrepreneurship outweighs its negative aspects. According to analysts, in New York alone immigrants who own small businesses promote consumption. They are an engine for growth.

Frederick Esteves, 37, of Queens, sees immigrant entrepreneurs as economic contributors because they provide jobs. Their workers, he says, pay taxes and buy products that sustain certain industries. “Determined, strong and self-reliant immigrant entrepreneurs will be important players in revitalizing New York’s small business sectors.”

This article was written as part of the Ethnic Press Fellowship of the Independent Press Association-New York.