WALTHAM, Mass., May 17, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In the second of its Quarterly Surveys, business.com asked nearly 500 business.com community members about the pros and cons of immigration and its impact on the small business economy. Optimism ran high among immigrant business professionals as 73% reported feeling positive about the future of business. The survey also revealed a split among respondents on the impact of immigration on business as 38.7% of small business professionals said immigration was good for business, 42% said it was bad for business and 19.3% said it had no effect on their business. These results underscore the current polarized attitude toward immigration in the U.S. Further details of the survey are outlined in the business.com story, “Small Business Professionals Split on Immigration’s Impact.” The inaugural business.com Quarterly Survey explored the impact of Trump’s administration policies on small business. Read more about those survey findings HERE. To learn more about business.com, our active community of small business owners and extensive bench of industry experts, please visit www.business.com.
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While sentiment was split on the impact of immigration on small business, the challenges for both immigrant and non-immigrant business owners were strikingly similar, as respondents noted hiring and managing employees and establishing a customer base as their greatest challenges. Immigrant-owned businesses, however, ranked their third biggest challenge as managing finances while non-immigrant business professionals said the third most pressing challenge was navigating U.S. business laws and regulations. A majority of both immigrant and non-immigrant business owners used personal savings to start their business (62% of immigrant business owners; 55% of non-immigrant business owners) and 84% of both groups noted that education was either important or very important for their industry.
Forty-five percent of immigrant professionals said they hire members of their local community as employees, followed by family and friends. business.com also found that 33% of non-immigrant respondents said they or someone they knew hired illegal immigrants to work for their businesses. Many of those noted separately that they did so because they were unsure how to verify the legality of an employee. To learn more about how to verify if a worker is legally eligible to work in the United States, read our full article HERE.
When asked "how has immigration impacted your local community and business?" the answers ranged from positive to deeply negative and many called for immigration reform. One respondent noted, "Immigrant labor in my field is very important. Immigrants get the job done. They are hard-working, reliable and strong. We need an immigration reform ASAP."
“Our survey results underscore the continued polarizing attitude toward immigration and its impact on our economy, but also highlights the American Dream is alive and well as small business owners continue to pursue their goals with the same passion, intention and dedication no matter where they get their start,” said Doug Llewellyn, CEO, business.com. “I am encouraged by the findings as small business -whether immigrant owned or not - continues to serve as the lifeblood of this country and will fuel our economy for years to come.”
To learn more about the results of this survey, please refer to the business.com story, “Small Business Professionals Split on Immigration’s Impact.”
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