Enhancing Success - Canada’s Immigrant Entrepreneurs and International Trade (2018)

This report provides an overview of challenges faced by immigrant entrepreneurs and offers suggestions in four areas to help address them so that immigrant entrepreneurs can perform better and help advance Canada’s international trade agenda.

Summary

"Canada needs to diversify and expand its international trade to strengthen its economy. Immigrant entrepreneurs can help this cause due to favourable characteristics such as their foreign language skills. However, their ability to do so is limited by the unique challenges that they face, such as their weak social and business networks in Canada."

Summary of suggestions

• Canada needs to diversify and expand its international trade to strengthen its economy.
• In light of their foreign language skills, engagement in knowledge-based industries, and predisposition to export beyond Canada’s traditional markets, immigrant entrepreneurs are ideal for helping to advance Canada’s international trade agenda.
• However, when it comes to firm size, business survival rates, and export revenues, immigrant entrepreneurs underperform compared with their Canadianborn counterparts.
• Strengthening their networks, raising awareness of domestic and international business supports, creating dedicated settlement support programs, and improving access to financing will enhance immigrant entrepreneurs’ success and role in boosting Canada’s international trade.

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