Female Immigrant Entrepreneurship in Germany

The recent waves of immigration in western countries lead to challenges for policy makers and the society. In particular the integration of immigrants into the society and the labor market is intensively discussed. Within this process, self-employment and entrepreneurship plays an important role, and in particular new venture creation by women. This chapter aims to provide a snapshot on female entrepreneurship in Germany, with a focus on female immigrant entrepreneurship. We analyze female immigrant entrepreneurship against its historical background as well as in the light of the recent ‘European refugee crisis'. In this chapter we analyze differences between opportunity-driven and necessity-driven female immigrant entrepreneurship and how these differences matters for policy makers. We identify barriers based on personal characteristics, attitudes, cultural background and the entrepreneurial environment hindering latent and nascent female entrepreneurs to start new ventures and thus make a successful process of integration difficult. Despite the emergence of female immigrant entrepreneurship as an academic topic, there exists only scarce and almost anecdotal evidence for Germany. Thus, this chapter aims to present some facts and figures to shed some light on the current situation and development potential to stimulate further research on this topic