Immigrant Self-employment: Definitions, Concepts and Methods

The paper presents a review of selected definitional issues and theoretical concepts related to the phenomenon of immigrant self-employment. A chronological analysis of the developments of the academic discourse on the topic allows detecting the interconnections between various approaches and understanding their growing complexity. The inquiry is complemented with a review of most recent empirical studies, what enables an assessment of the applicability and usefulness of long-established concepts for framing contemporary studies. Based on the appraisal of gathered material this paper also points to the limitations and possible areas of development of future research in the field.