Almost every fifth business person who has chosen the difficult path of private entrepreneurship was born outside Germany or comes from a migrant family
The German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Deutsche Industrie- und Handelskammer) calculated that over the entire past year, 11,000 people with a migration background received advice and recommendations on starting new businesses at its branches. The experience of regional advisory centers at the IHK shows that only two years ago, only 8,300 foreigners living in the Federal Republic were interested in the possibilities of starting their own business.
Migrants interested in starting their own business make a significant contribution to the development of private entrepreneurship in Germany, says the president of the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Hans Heinrich Driftmann: in 2010 alone, about 150,000 new jobs were created at enterprises owned by foreigners. 'Against the backdrop of a changing demographic situation, the country needs migrant entrepreneurs who add new impulses to the economic development of the Federal Republic of Germany,' Driftmann believes.
According to forecasts by economists and sociologists, by 2050 the number of private entrepreneurs in the country will decrease by 700,000 people: migrants will make up a significant share of businesspeople doing business in Germany. Today, the business activity of foreigners is noticeable in all sectors of the national economy, but traditionally the largest number of new enterprises created by migrants is in trade and gastronomy: 24% of the country's residents of foreign origin who registered new enterprises chose catering or trade as their field of activity. Native Germans prefer the service sector (mainly maintenance of residential and non-residential premises) or information technology.
Germans and migrants show approximately equal interest in registering industrial enterprises: four percent of start-up entrepreneurs with a migration background and 5% of Germans chose the manufacturing sector.
Maxim SMIRNOV.
Russian Germany