The Comparison of Incomes of Self-Employed and Salaried Workers Among German Nationals and Immigrants

This paper attempts to compare the economic success of immigrants and natives in Germany. Employing data from German Socioeconomic Panel, the paper investigates the factors affecting self-employment as well as compares the income of self-employed and employed workers among four groups – West Germans, East Germans, guest workers and ethnic immigrants. Increasing age, higher education and self-employed parents increases probability of an individual’s self-employment, with the last two applying only to West Germans. The self-employed earn more than their salaried counterparts, except for East Germans. Despite self-employed immigrants having the highest earnings of all groups, self-employment rates remain low among immigrants.