Introduction

The presence of immigrants in economically developed countries' marketplaces is becoming so significant that the competitiveness of a country or a region cannot be understood without taking migration into account. Immigrants not only participate in the labour market as salaried workers, they also create businesses. In this dissertation I analyse the different stages of the entrepreneurial process of immigrants in Spain and the Basque Country: starting from their propensity and intention to become self-employed (pre-start-up stage) through to the success or failure of these initiatives (post-start-up stage).