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Bread for the World Institute 9
Andrew Wainer/Bread for the World
because they are competing with each other,” Bihun
said. “I tend to see that in southwest Detroit more
than I see that in other parts of [the city].”
Marcos, a 31-year-old man from Mexico, is an
example of how immigrant entrepreneurship affects
Detroit. Marcos learned the construction trade from
his father in Mexico, but when his father injured his
back at work, Marcos felt pressure to support the
family—a difficult task in his rural Mexican town.
Marcos first entered the United States hidden in a
car in 1998 and settled in Texas for several years.
He came to Detroit in the early 2000s on the recommendation of a cousin who said he could earn more
money. After working as a mason for several years,
Marcos decided to use his savings to apply what he
learned in Mexico and the United States in his own
Marcos immigrated from Mexico looking for economic opportunity and started his
own construction company in Detroit.
construction company. Today his home construction
and demolition business has seven employees. After
living in Mexicantown for some time, Marcos moved his with a bank,” said Catalina Rodriquez, Baltimore’s Hispanic
family to the suburbs, where he used his business income Liaison. “Or back home they might have had a bad experito buy a home. He sees Detroit as a land of opportunity. ence with a bank. To get the community to trust bank institu“There’s a lot of [construction] work here,” he said. “They tions is a problem. There really isn’t this mentality of credit
need more people. Last night we had to work until 8 p.m. or credit cards, it’s more of a cash community.” This lack of
because we had another project to do today.”
experience with the financial sector, combined for some with
Like West Vernor Highway in Mexicantown, Baltimore the uncertainty created by living in the United States without
has its own immigrant small-business corridors. “You see authorization, leads immigrants to operate outside formal
these little Mom and Pop shops everywhere, and some of financial channels. “Our community has a lot of wealth, and
them are going to be gone the next year, that’s the nature has a lot of assets, it’s just in people’s file cabinet or in their
of small business,” said Elizabeth Alex of the community bedroom,” said Casa de Maryland’s Elizabeth Alex. “It’s just
organization Casa de Maryland. “But a fair number of them not being used as well as it could be.”
grow and hire workers and fill up commercial corridors. Just
The lack of familiarity with financial institutions extends
having sheer numbers of small businesses can help, especially to a lack of knowledge of how to grow a business beyond
if they are concentrated in a small area.” Betty Symington, the micro level. “For both documented and undocumented
executive director of Episcopal Refugee and Immigrant immigrants, just having a good business plan to ask for
Coalition, said that Baltimore’s immigrant businesses tend money is the hardest part,” said Jose Rivas, vice president
to be small and are often started out of necessity. “This is of the Baltimore Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. “They
how immigrants survive,” Symington said. “You can’t sur- don’t know anything about leases, they don’t have a busivive on $9 an hour as a cafeteria worker so a lot of them start ness plan to go get a loan. They use all of their savings to
business on the side.”
get a loan from hard money lenders. This is the only option
Highlandtown in Baltimore and Mexicantown in Detroit people know so that’s where they go.”
are not Rodeo Drive or Fifth Avenue. Most of the businesses
The unauthorized status of some immigrants reinforces
are small, as just mentioned, and these commercial corridors
their avoidance of formal financial tools for both personal
experience some of the same urban decay as their broader
finances and entrepreneurship. Experts said that the threat
urban environments, including abandoned storefronts and
of deportation, which is on the increase, means that immicrumbling buildings. In spite of their tangible impact on the
grants want their money close at hand—under the proverbial
Rust Belt, the potential of immigrant entrepreneurs is conmattress rather than in the bank. “People might think, ‘If I
strained by a number of barriers.
get deported, how would I get my savings,’” said Catalina
Rodriquez, Baltimore’s Hispanic Liaison. The education,
Barriers to Immigrant Entrepreneurship
language, and structural barriers facing immigrant entrepreOne of the primary challenges is immigrants’ limited neurs who need a business loan mean that many experts see
experience with and trust of the formal financial sector. community development financial institutions as a key com“[They come] from rural areas where they never had contact ponent to nurturing immigrant entrepreneurship. “They