ABSTRACT
Characteristics of the recent wave of immigrants to Israel have created structural conditions conducive to entrepreneurship. This chapter investigates the factors associated with intentions to open a small business and implementation of these plans among immigrants from countries of the former Soviet Union to Israel. Small business entrepreneurship is a frequent strategy for economic integration by immigrants and has facilitated social and economic mobility of ethnic groups. The ethnic entrepreneur has an advantage in awareness of consumer preferences and can offer the immigrants the comfort of conducting transactions in their own language and culture. Immigrant concentration in business may well be a response to occupational closure in the labor market. Since 1990, a large number of Jews from the countries of the former Soviet Union have immigrated to Israel. A common problem of the Russian immigrants is the transferability of skills from one society to another.
