The Dynamics of Self‐employment and Ethnic Business Ownership among Taiwanese in Australia

Abstract

Taiwan-born business and skilled migrants who settle in Australia have high unemployment rates despite being well educated and fairly affluent. This phenomenon, commonly found in Australia among new Asian immigrants, has seldom been researched. Using qualitative methodologies, including ethnographic interviews and participant observation, this paper examines economic integration of recent Taiwanese business and skilled migrants in three Australian cities: Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne. The results indicate that Taiwanese immigrants find it difficult to secure employment, start profitable businesses, and adapt to the host society. The integration challenges include: lack of fluency in English, different social and cultural milieu, lack of familiarity with Australian business culture and labour relations, complex rules and regulations governing the establishment of business enterprises, small size of the market, high taxes, and lack of willingness to take up work not commensurate with their education and economic background. Policy recommendations to foster early integration of skilled migrants from Taiwan are included.

Back to Hong Kong: return migration or transnational sojourn?

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Taiwanese Migrants in Australia: An Investigation of Their Acculturation and Wellbeing

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The impact of self-employment on the economic integration of immigrants: Evidence from Germany

“…To date, there is no fixed definition of the term or concept of immigrant self-employment among researchers due to constant changes in the world of immigration around the globe (Nestorowicz, 2012). Self-employment is generally associated with the immigrant starting his/her own business in the host country and not being in labor employment (Chiang, 2004;Ambrosini, 2013;OECD, 2015). Mostly, these seem rather small or mediumsized businesses (Chiang, 2004), although usually it is not discussed what is meant by those terms (i.e., threshold values, etc.).…”