Belgium: Foreigners 7% of entrepreneurs

About 7% of entrepreneurs in Belgium aren't Belgian citizens. In Brussels that's 27%. With 15% of non-Belgian independent entrepreneurs , Antwerp is the most important attractive pool of foreign entrepreneurs in Flanders. This according to an analysis of entrepreneur organization Unizo from the most recent data available from the national service for social security and self-employed, from the end of 2006.

There are 62,246 foreign entrepreneurs in Belgium, which are about 7% of the 880,662 self employed entrepreneurs. According to Unizo, the share of new Europeans (Poles, Romanians, Bulgarians), has gone up every year in the past seven years. In 2001 3% were new Europeans, in 2006 that was 14%.

The analysis also confirms the cliches about the type of activity per nationality group: 70% of Turk and Moroccan self-employed entrepreneurs are active in trade, 60% of East Europeans in construction.

It is striking that foreign entrepreneurs in Belgium must close their business four times as much as Belgian entrepreneurs.

Source: HLN (Dutch)

See also: Netherlands: Immigrants 28% of supermarket entrepreneurs, Denmark: Bakeries taken over by immigrants, Amsterdam: Immigrant entrepreneurs turn to private loans, Denmark: Immigrant women entrepreneurs

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