By Pat Loeb

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - A new report out today from the Fiscal Policy Institute finds that immigrants are more likely than U.S.-born workers to start small businesses.

In Philadelphia, immigrants make up nine-percent of the population but 14-percent of small business owners. And while just three-percent of U.S. born Philadelphians own businesses, 3.5-percent of immigrants do.

Labor economist Mark Price of Keystone Research Center says the report confirms what many people intuitively thought but with firm numbers.

“Immigrants tend to do a better job of forming small businesses than they represent of the larger economy.”

Price says he doesn’t think immigrants are necessarily super-entrepreneurs but cultural and language barriers make it harder for them to get jobs.

“It can be easier to make your way in the U.S. economy as a small business owner than as an employee.”