Social Capital and the Myth of Minority Self-Employment: Evidence from Canada

Using data from the Ethnic Diversity Survey conducted by Statistics Canada in 2001, this paper shows that visible minorities, particularly blacks, are the least likely to be self-employed when compared to Europeans. The rate of self-employment for visible minorities is lowest in manufacturing and the primary sectors of the economy. To the extent that social capital is important for self-employment, its benefits vary by type of social capital and industry. There is also evidence that the employment benefits derived from social capital vary across ethno-racial groups, challenging the view that social capital is a source of ethnic advantage for minority groups.