Entrepreneurship and self-employment among immigrant women in Canada: a narrative review toward an intersectional and intersectoral research agenda

This article provides a narrative review of recent research on entrepreneurship and self-employment among immigrant women in Canada. The aim was to identify the state-of-the-art, current trends and findings in existing literature to suggest future research avenues.

Focusing on the Canadian context, a thorough search was conducted across four academic databases (EBSCO, ProQuest, Web of Science, and Cairn) for both peer-reviewed articles and grey literature. Fourteen papers and one report, published between 2010 and 2024, were selected and analyzed using a narrative approach.

The review identified the primary challenges faced by immigrant women entrepreneurs and self-employed workers in Canada according to recent research. Most of the existing literature comprises qualitative studies utilizing in-depth interviews, primarily focusing on specific ethnic groups. Research aimed at developing coordinated policy for support services constitutes a minority of the studies and are mostly situated in Quebec, highlighting a significant research gap for future investigation.

This paper consolidates the existing theoretical and empirical approaches to female immigrant entrepreneurship research within the Canadian context. The review sets the stage to suggest new avenues for further research, particularly to inform intersectoral planning and action to support immigrant women in entrepreneurial pursuits from an intersectionality standpoint.