RESEARCH STARTER

Family businesses and immigrants

Family businesses play a significant role in the immigrant experience, serving as a pathway to economic opportunity and cultural preservation. Many immigrants, particularly those arriving from Europe, Asia, and Latin America, have established businesses that reflect their ethnic heritage and cater to their communities. These ventures often began as small enterprises, such as food markets and restaurants, which allowed families to work closely together and support one another. Over time, some of these small businesses evolved into larger companies, contributing to the broader American economy and becoming a vital part of the local business landscape.

In particular, immigrant families have utilized their skills and resources to create diverse business sectors, including food services, garment manufacturing, and various trades. The roles within these family businesses have shifted over generations, often leading to younger members taking on greater responsibilities, especially in customer interactions. Despite facing challenges such as language barriers and economic hardships, immigrant entrepreneurs have demonstrated resilience and adaptability, leading to significant contributions to American entrepreneurship. By the early 21st century, immigrants represented a substantial percentage of entrepreneurs in the United States, showcasing their ongoing influence within the business community. This legacy of immigrant family businesses continues to enrich the multicultural fabric of American society.

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  • DEFINITION: Establishments run and staffed by family members and within which entire families may work

SIGNIFICANCE: Family businesses have played an important role in the lives of immigrants to the United States. These businesses have enabled immigrants to establish themselves, first as members of their ethnic neighborhoods and, secondly, as members of the American community in which they live. Family businesses have also contributed to the preservation of the ethnic heritage and culture of immigrants and have enriched multiculturalism in the United States.

The majority of European immigrants who arrived in the United States during the nineteenth century found work in the burgeoning new industries of the country. Meatpacking plants, steel mills, the garment industry, coal mining, and railroad construction provided numerous jobs, most of which required few, if any, special skills. Many of these jobs required strenuous manual labor in harsh working conditions for as long as ten to twelve hours a day. Some jobs were dangerous, posing constant risks of serious injury and possibly even of death. At the same time, many employers paid very low wages, and some exploited language barriers by withholding pay from immigrants who did not yet speak English. In these conditions, enterprising immigrants lived as frugally as they could, saved money, and joined with other family members to start small businesses using such skills as they had and small investments. Not only did husbands, wives, and children work in these family businesses, but also brothers, sisters, cousins, and even grandparents. Most of these businesses operated within the immigrant neighborhoods where many newcomers lived, often forming part of vibrant community networks that provided services, support, and cultural familiarity.

Food Businesses and Nonfood Businesses

Family-owned businesses were frequently connected to food. Residents of predominantly Irish, German, Polish, Lithuanian, Italian, and Greek neighborhoods created steady demand for products that reminded them of their home countries and for shops where they could conduct transactions in their own languages. Restaurants, bakeries, grocery stores, candy stores, and taverns all provided the familiar foods of home and opportunities to interact with friends and neighbors in familiar atmospheres.

The food industry also provided business opportunities for those lacking the funds to open stores or restaurants. Many Greek and Italian immigrants, for example, developed small-scale enterprises by selling goods from pushcarts or temporary stands along neighborhood streets. Many sold local specialties of the particular regions from which they emigrated. Others sold fruits and vegetables that they raised in small garden plots.

Immigrants also established businesses not related to food, such as sewing, laundry, and dry cleaning services. When they saved sufficient capital, many immigrants who had been skilled tradesmen in their home countries opened cobbler shops, small cigar-making shops, and tanneries, as well as cabinet-making shops, metal and woodworking shops, and barbershops. For instance, many Italian immigrants entered the construction industry, while many Jewish immigrants became involved in the garment industry as tailors and dressmakers.

Encouraged by their success in their local neighborhoods, the Italian pushcart vendors soon started sending family members with carts of fruits and vegetables into adjacent residential neighborhoods. Immigrant street vendors also set up stands in major commercial areas of the cities in which they lived to sell their wares to larger markets.

From Small Shops to Large Commercial Ventures

Immigrant family businesses did not simply remain small storefronts or home-based service businesses. Many Italian immigrants who began as pushcart vendors of fruits and vegetables transformed their businesses into wholesale produce firms with fleets of delivery trucks. Such businesses typically remained family owned and managed while also employing many non-family members. German bakers expanded their businesses. Some opened chains of bakeries, and others set up wholesale bread companies. Many Jewish immigrants expanded small tailoring and dressmaking shops into large garment factories.

As they became more affluent, immigrants from virtually all immigrant groups founded businesses in profitable market sectors. Immigrants owned steel mills, breweries, flour mills, and other businesses. These businesses tended to stay family-owned, as they were passed down to succeeding generations of family members. Many of these businesses grew from single commercial entities to become large corporations with facilities throughout the United States. By the middle of the twentieth century, firms founded by immigrant families were a major part of the mainstream of American business.

Asian and Latin American Family Businesses

At the same time that European immigrants were settling in the eastern and midwestern states, Chinese immigrants were arriving in California to work in the gold mines and to work as laborers building the transcontinental railroad. This growing influx of Chinese workers created markets for familiar Chinese products, especially foodstuffs. Family-owned and operated Chinese restaurants and grocery stores soon began opening, with husbands, wives, children, and other family members all involved. Other family-owned and operated businesses appeared as well. Herbalists opened shops in which family members knowledgeable in the medicinal properties of herbs saw patients while other family members prepared the herbal medicines—often within family kitchens.

The booming population of miners from around the world and the growing number of tourists in San Francisco and other California towns created additional business opportunities for Chinese immigrants. The need for laundry services provided a major business sector in which Chinese-owned and operated businesses prospered. Curio shops also enjoyed immense success in the West. Immigrants with families still in China imported carved ivory and jade items to sell in their shops. However, Chinese immigration experienced a major setback in 1882 when the US Congress enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act. Anti-Chinese sentiment was increasing in the western United States during this period. By the early twentieth century, an estimated 80 percent of Chinese residents in the country had moved to large metropolitan areas, where many settled in emerging Chinatowns. These neighborhoods often supported family-run businesses and provided social networks in the face of widespread discrimination and exclusionary laws.

In the latter half of the twentieth century, immigrants continued to come from China, and also came from Korea, Vietnam, India, and other Asian countrie to the United States. Family businesses, especially in the food sector, continued to offer opportunities for financial success. Although the United States was becoming increasingly dominated by large commercial conglomerates during this period, many Asian immigrant families were still able to establish successful small businesses. Some of these enterprises served their local communities with culturally familiar goods and services, while others operated in broader commercial markets.

Early immigrants from Mexico and other Latin American countries, like the Asian and European immigrants, settled in large cities and established their own local communities. These neighborhoods provided the opportunity for successful family businesses that served the needs of the communities. During the later years of the twentieth century and the early years of the twenty-first century, many Hispanic immigrants, especially from Mexico, also settled in rural areas in which Hispanic populations were smaller and more dispersed. However, as the United States has continued to evolve into a multicultural society, families in these immigrant communities have found many opportunities to establish restaurants and food stores that provide the traditional foods of their native countries.

During the early history of US immigration, family structures were not significantly changed within families that worked together in businesses. However, by the mid-twentieth century, the roles that parents and children assumed in these businesses began to have a significant impact on family relationships. For example, children of immigrant families often took on larger roles in family businesses as their English proficiency increased through schooling. These American-educated children frequently handled tasks that required communication with customers and vendors. As a result, responsibilities within many families shifted, with younger generations contributing more to the public-facing aspects of the business.

By opening family businesses, immigrants have played an important role in the development of the American business sector. Although immigrant businesses were originally staffed predominantly by family members, many of them evolved into large enterprises that have employed large workforces. As family businesses have grown, they have offered employment opportunities to other immigrants, particularly those in the same cultural groups as the owners of the businesses.

While various immigrant groups were instrumental in the creation of a broad range of business activities such as the garment industry, trucking, and manufacturing, the immigrant family business has been the most visible as a factor in the food service business. Ethnic restaurants have become an integral part of the American landscape.

Well into the twenty-first century, immigrants have continued to fuel entrepreneurial growth in the United States. Although immigrants made up about 14 percent of the national population in 2023, they accounted for roughly 19 percent of new business owners during that period. Research indicates that immigrant-founded businesses, on average, demonstrate strong long-term survival rates, often attributed to adaptability, a focus on innovation and expansion, and the value many entrepreneurs place on diverse networks and perspectives. The tradition of immigrant- and immigrant-descended family businesses remains a significant part of the country’s economic landscape, reflected in the many prominent companies whose origins trace back to immigrant founders and the families who have sustained them across generations.

Analyses also show that immigrant entrepreneurs continue to play an essential role in emerging industries; for example, one 2025 report found that immigrant-founded companies made up a majority of the nation’s most highly funded artificial intelligence (AI) startups, underscoring their ongoing impact on innovation and economic growth.


Bibliography

Aldrich, Howard, Robert Ward, and Roger Waldinger, editors. Ethnic Entrepreneurs: Immigrant Business in Industrial Societies. BookSurge Publishing, 2006.

Chang, Iris. The Chinese in America: A Narrative History. Viking Press, 2003.

Colli, Andrea. The History of Family Business, 1850-2000. Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Dreem. “Immigrant Founders Drive Majority of U.S. AI Innovation and Investment.” GlobeNewswire, 1 July 2025, www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/07/01/3108400/0/en/Immigrants-Drive-U-S-AI-Boom-Raising-167B-2-5x-More-Than-U-S-Born-Founders.html. Accessed 22 Nov. 2025.

Kelly, Nataly. “Research Shows Immigrants Help Businesses Grow. Here's Why.” Harvard Business Review, 26 Oct. 2018, hbr.org/2018/10/research-shows-immigrants-help-businesses-grow-heres-why. Accessed 27 Jan. 2025.

Liu, Haiming. The Transnational History of a Chinese Family: Immigrant Letters, Family Business, and Reverse Migration. Rutgers UP, 2005.

Portes, Alejandro, and Rubén G. Rumbaut. Immigrant America: A Portrait. 3rd ed., U of C Press, 2006.

Rath, Jan. Immigrant Business: The Economic, Political and Social Environment. Palgrave Macmillan, 2000.

Tremper, Nich. "Immigrants Started Nearly 1 in 5 New Businesses in 2023." Gusto, 22 May 2024, gusto.com/company-news/2024-immigrant-entrepreneur-report. Accessed 27 Jan. 2025. 

Vo, Linda Trinh, and Roger Bonus, eds. Contemporary Asian American Communities: Intersections and Divergences. T U Press, 2002.

Full Article

  • DEFINITION: Establishments run and staffed by family members and within which entire families may work

SIGNIFICANCE: Family businesses have played an important role in the lives of immigrants to the United States. These businesses have enabled immigrants to establish themselves, first as members of their ethnic neighborhoods and, secondly, as members of the American community in which they live. Family businesses have also contributed to the preservation of the ethnic heritage and culture of immigrants and have enriched multiculturalism in the United States.

The majority of European immigrants who arrived in the United States during the nineteenth century found work in the burgeoning new industries of the country. Meatpacking plants, steel mills, the garment industry, coal mining, and railroad construction provided numerous jobs, most of which required few, if any, special skills. Many of these jobs required strenuous manual labor in harsh working conditions for as long as ten to twelve hours a day. Some jobs were dangerous, posing constant risks of serious injury and possibly even of death. At the same time, many employers paid very low wages, and some exploited language barriers by withholding pay from immigrants who did not yet speak English. In these conditions, enterprising immigrants lived as frugally as they could, saved money, and joined with other family members to start small businesses using such skills as they had and small investments. Not only did husbands, wives, and children work in these family businesses, but also brothers, sisters, cousins, and even grandparents. Most of these businesses operated within the immigrant neighborhoods where many newcomers lived, often forming part of vibrant community networks that provided services, support, and cultural familiarity.

Food Businesses and Nonfood Businesses

Family-owned businesses were frequently connected to food. Residents of predominantly Irish, German, Polish, Lithuanian, Italian, and Greek neighborhoods created steady demand for products that reminded them of their home countries and for shops where they could conduct transactions in their own languages. Restaurants, bakeries, grocery stores, candy stores, and taverns all provided the familiar foods of home and opportunities to interact with friends and neighbors in familiar atmospheres.

The food industry also provided business opportunities for those lacking the funds to open stores or restaurants. Many Greek and Italian immigrants, for example, developed small-scale enterprises by selling goods from pushcarts or temporary stands along neighborhood streets. Many sold local specialties of the particular regions from which they emigrated. Others sold fruits and vegetables that they raised in small garden plots.

Immigrants also established businesses not related to food, such as sewing, laundry, and dry cleaning services. When they saved sufficient capital, many immigrants who had been skilled tradesmen in their home countries opened cobbler shops, small cigar-making shops, and tanneries, as well as cabinet-making shops, metal and woodworking shops, and barbershops. For instance, many Italian immigrants entered the construction industry, while many Jewish immigrants became involved in the garment industry as tailors and dressmakers.

Encouraged by their success in their local neighborhoods, the Italian pushcart vendors soon started sending family members with carts of fruits and vegetables into adjacent residential neighborhoods. Immigrant street vendors also set up stands in major commercial areas of the cities in which they lived to sell their wares to larger markets.

From Small Shops to Large Commercial Ventures

Immigrant family businesses did not simply remain small storefronts or home-based service businesses. Many Italian immigrants who began as pushcart vendors of fruits and vegetables transformed their businesses into wholesale produce firms with fleets of delivery trucks. Such businesses typically remained family owned and managed while also employing many non-family members. German bakers expanded their businesses. Some opened chains of bakeries, and others set up wholesale bread companies. Many Jewish immigrants expanded small tailoring and dressmaking shops into large garment factories.

As they became more affluent, immigrants from virtually all immigrant groups founded businesses in profitable market sectors. Immigrants owned steel mills, breweries, flour mills, and other businesses. These businesses tended to stay family-owned, as they were passed down to succeeding generations of family members. Many of these businesses grew from single commercial entities to become large corporations with facilities throughout the United States. By the middle of the twentieth century, firms founded by immigrant families were a major part of the mainstream of American business.

Asian and Latin American Family Businesses

At the same time that European immigrants were settling in the eastern and midwestern states, Chinese immigrants were arriving in California to work in the gold mines and to work as laborers building the transcontinental railroad. This growing influx of Chinese workers created markets for familiar Chinese products, especially foodstuffs. Family-owned and operated Chinese restaurants and grocery stores soon began opening, with husbands, wives, children, and other family members all involved. Other family-owned and operated businesses appeared as well. Herbalists opened shops in which family members knowledgeable in the medicinal properties of herbs saw patients while other family members prepared the herbal medicines—often within family kitchens.

The booming population of miners from around the world and the growing number of tourists in San Francisco and other California towns created additional business opportunities for Chinese immigrants. The need for laundry services provided a major business sector in which Chinese-owned and operated businesses prospered. Curio shops also enjoyed immense success in the West. Immigrants with families still in China imported carved ivory and jade items to sell in their shops. However, Chinese immigration experienced a major setback in 1882 when the US Congress enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act. Anti-Chinese sentiment was increasing in the western United States during this period. By the early twentieth century, an estimated 80 percent of Chinese residents in the country had moved to large metropolitan areas, where many settled in emerging Chinatowns. These neighborhoods often supported family-run businesses and provided social networks in the face of widespread discrimination and exclusionary laws.

In the latter half of the twentieth century, immigrants continued to come from China, and also came from Korea, Vietnam, India, and other Asian countrie to the United States. Family businesses, especially in the food sector, continued to offer opportunities for financial success. Although the United States was becoming increasingly dominated by large commercial conglomerates during this period, many Asian immigrant families were still able to establish successful small businesses. Some of these enterprises served their local communities with culturally familiar goods and services, while others operated in broader commercial markets.

Early immigrants from Mexico and other Latin American countries, like the Asian and European immigrants, settled in large cities and established their own local communities. These neighborhoods provided the opportunity for successful family businesses that served the needs of the communities. During the later years of the twentieth century and the early years of the twenty-first century, many Hispanic immigrants, especially from Mexico, also settled in rural areas in which Hispanic populations were smaller and more dispersed. However, as the United States has continued to evolve into a multicultural society, families in these immigrant communities have found many opportunities to establish restaurants and food stores that provide the traditional foods of their native countries.

During the early history of US immigration, family structures were not significantly changed within families that worked together in businesses. However, by the mid-twentieth century, the roles that parents and children assumed in these businesses began to have a significant impact on family relationships. For example, children of immigrant families often took on larger roles in family businesses as their English proficiency increased through schooling. These American-educated children frequently handled tasks that required communication with customers and vendors. As a result, responsibilities within many families shifted, with younger generations contributing more to the public-facing aspects of the business.

By opening family businesses, immigrants have played an important role in the development of the American business sector. Although immigrant businesses were originally staffed predominantly by family members, many of them evolved into large enterprises that have employed large workforces. As family businesses have grown, they have offered employment opportunities to other immigrants, particularly those in the same cultural groups as the owners of the businesses.

While various immigrant groups were instrumental in the creation of a broad range of business activities such as the garment industry, trucking, and manufacturing, the immigrant family business has been the most visible as a factor in the food service business. Ethnic restaurants have become an integral part of the American landscape.

Well into the twenty-first century, immigrants have continued to fuel entrepreneurial growth in the United States. Although immigrants made up about 14 percent of the national population in 2023, they accounted for roughly 19 percent of new business owners during that period. Research indicates that immigrant-founded businesses, on average, demonstrate strong long-term survival rates, often attributed to adaptability, a focus on innovation and expansion, and the value many entrepreneurs place on diverse networks and perspectives. The tradition of immigrant- and immigrant-descended family businesses remains a significant part of the country’s economic landscape, reflected in the many prominent companies whose origins trace back to immigrant founders and the families who have sustained them across generations.

Analyses also show that immigrant entrepreneurs continue to play an essential role in emerging industries; for example, one 2025 report found that immigrant-founded companies made up a majority of the nation’s most highly funded artificial intelligence (AI) startups, underscoring their ongoing impact on innovation and economic growth.


Bibliography

Aldrich, Howard, Robert Ward, and Roger Waldinger, editors. Ethnic Entrepreneurs: Immigrant Business in Industrial Societies. BookSurge Publishing, 2006.

Chang, Iris. The Chinese in America: A Narrative History. Viking Press, 2003.

Colli, Andrea. The History of Family Business, 1850-2000. Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Dreem. “Immigrant Founders Drive Majority of U.S. AI Innovation and Investment.” GlobeNewswire, 1 July 2025, www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/07/01/3108400/0/en/Immigrants-Drive-U-S-AI-Boom-Raising-167B-2-5x-More-Than-U-S-Born-Founders.html. Accessed 22 Nov. 2025.

Kelly, Nataly. “Research Shows Immigrants Help Businesses Grow. Here's Why.” Harvard Business Review, 26 Oct. 2018, hbr.org/2018/10/research-shows-immigrants-help-businesses-grow-heres-why. Accessed 27 Jan. 2025.

Liu, Haiming. The Transnational History of a Chinese Family: Immigrant Letters, Family Business, and Reverse Migration. Rutgers UP, 2005.

Portes, Alejandro, and Rubén G. Rumbaut. Immigrant America: A Portrait. 3rd ed., U of C Press, 2006.

Rath, Jan. Immigrant Business: The Economic, Political and Social Environment. Palgrave Macmillan, 2000.

Tremper, Nich. "Immigrants Started Nearly 1 in 5 New Businesses in 2023." Gusto, 22 May 2024, gusto.com/company-news/2024-immigrant-entrepreneur-report. Accessed 27 Jan. 2025. 

Vo, Linda Trinh, and Roger Bonus, eds. Contemporary Asian American Communities: Intersections and Divergences. T U Press, 2002.

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