Migration, Entrepreneurship and Development: A Critical Review

This paper provides an assessment of the state of scholarly and policy debates on migrant entrepreneurs in development. They are often described as super-entrepreneurs who contribute to development through (i) being more entrepreneurial than natives; (ii) providing remittances that fund start-ups in their countries of origin and (iii) returning entrepreneurial skills to their home countries when they re-migrate. The paper evaluates these three views and conclude that the empirical evidence to support the notion of the migrant as a super- entrepreneur is weak. It further argues that the evidence is less ambiguous on the general development contribution of migration over and above its contribution through entrepreneurship.