Page 127 - IJPS-11-2

International Journal of
Population Studies Country choice for migrant entrepreneurship

for the entrepreneur and determines what aspects are in this new index contributes to the objective score and
considered more important than others. In addition, it is corresponding weight, based on a maximum normalized
universal, that is, it can be applied to any citizenship and is value of 100 (Section 3.2).
based on the policies of the potential host country. Regarding the first category of the IMIGRENT index,
Based on the aforementioned criteria, the IMIGRENT immigration procedures, information is obtained from
index incorporates aspects from the 2020 EuCham host countries’ Ministry of Internal Affairs and various
index (World Bank Ease of Doing Business score and police departments that deal with immigration procedures.
Transparency International Corruption Perception Index), As for the second category, company registration, and
regarding starting a business and paying taxes and from ownership, information is obtained from host countries’
the MIPEX index, regarding immigrant integration Ministry of Economy and official information published by
in terms of family reunification, education, health, experts in the field. Regarding the third category, personal
permanent residence, and citizenship access Apart from affairs, and accommodations, information is obtained
these aspects, the IMIGRENT index incorporates the from specific sites concerning real estate. For the fourth
most important results from the literature (Desiderio, category, social services, such information is obtained
2014; OECD & European Union 2015; OECD, 2018; from the host countries’ Ministries of Social Security. In
Ram et al., 2017; Solano et al., 2019, 2023; Dabić et al., the fifth category, information regarding local friendliness
2020; Wellalage et al., 2023; Karren, 2024; Kushida, 2024; scores is obtained from the Internations.org webpage
Newman et al., 2024). Moreover, it fills gaps regarding the (Expat Insider, 2022). Finally, for the sixth category,
role of additional reasons for the decision to start and own climatic and natural conditions, information is obtained
a business, which has not been considered so far: these from numerous webpages of the host countries, especially
include social, economic, personal, climatic, and security those dedicated to weather-related issues such as the World
factors. The IMIGRENT index also considers migrants’ Meteorological Organization (WMO, 2024). Meanwhile,
personal preference to engage in entrepreneurial activity in the statistical analysis partly relies on information used
a given country, filling a gap regarding individual attitudes. for the MIPEX complemented by other indicators such as
These factors refer to personal affairs and accommodation immigrant procedure and company registration statistics,
and play a crucial role when starting a business; they country weather conditions, crime, and positive or negative
reflect the attitude of the local people toward immigrants, attitudes toward foreigners. Finally, a data wrapper is used
the country’s crime index, and the risk of war or natural to enhance the visualization of the results. This program
disasters, as well as weather (see Appendix for further was chosen because it is an open and user-friendly software
details). that is suitable for generating simple, yet comprehensive
The rest of this study is organized as follows. Section 2 visual presentations for academic reports.
describes the methodology. Section 3 discusses the main
results. Section 4 compares the results of the three indexes, 3. Results
whereas Section 5 presents the main conclusions. 3.1. Non-European immigrants in Europe

2. Data and methods When analyzing immigration in Europe, it is important
to focus on the non-European immigrants who moved
2.1. Method 1 to Europe in the last decades. According to 2011 data
This study combines quantitative and qualitative from Statista (2018), the top five major EU foreign-born
approaches, incorporating statistical data from communities are Morocco (2.29 million), Turkey (2.08
various sources such as the World Bank, Transparency million), Russia (1.81 million), Algeria (1.51 million),
International (EUCHAM, 2020), the Policies for Migrant and Ukraine (1.09 million). Due to the current armed
Integration by Solano & Huddleston (2020), the OECD, conflict between Russia and Ukraine (as of July 15, 2024),
and Eurostat. To select and review the relevant research, we a total of 6,021,400 Ukrainian refugees have resettled
conduct an online search of the Web of Science and Scopus in the EU under the temporary protection scheme for
databases using keywords such as “immigrant,” “refugee,” individuals fleeing the war in Ukraine (EU Protection,
“entrepreneur,” and “small business.” 2022; UNHCR EU-UA, 2023). The countries that have
attracted a majority of non-European immigrants are
2.2. Method 2 Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, and,
This study conducts a comprehensive analysis to measure before Brexit, the United Kingdom. Figure 1 depicts the
a country’s attractiveness for immigrant entrepreneurship number of immigrants from non-European countries
using the IMIGRENT index. Each of the six categories who settled in Europe in 2022. Based on the findings,

Volume 11 Issue 2 (2025) 121 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.4447