Each year, tens of thousands of people immigrate to the U.S., hoping for a better future. Robyn Rihanna Fenty’s story started the same way. Over a decade ago, Rihanna left her home country, Barbados, and her abusive addict father behind to launch her music career. 



Her journey kicked off with the help of fellow musician (and&nbsp;now billionaire) Jay-Z, who heard a demo of one of her songs. Since then, Rihanna has not only rocked the music industry, she’s also become a force in the beauty and fashion industries.



Building on her fame and her experiences as a woman of color, Rihanna launched makeup brand Fenty in partnership with luxury goods group LVMH in late 2017. &nbsp;



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The Fenty line, which includes shades of makeup for a wide range of skin colors and tones, pulled in an estimated $570 million in sales last year. In 2018, she started the Savage X Fenty lingerie line with Los Angeles-based online fashion firm TechStyle Fashion Group. 



That was just the first of her forays into clothing design. Last month Rihanna and LVMH announced a new luxury fashion house, Fenty, which will be based in Paris. She becomes the first black woman to lead a major fashion&nbsp;maison.



Primarily thanks to her ventures outside of music,&nbsp;Rihanna&nbsp;is worth an estimated $600 million, according to&nbsp;Forbes.&nbsp;She debuts as one of 19 immigrants on&nbsp;Forbes’ 2019 list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women, which altogether features 80 women.



 Two other newcomers to the list were born outside the U.S. as well: Ashley Chen of Taiwan and Neha Narkhede of India. The women immigrants hail from around the globe, from Canada to South Korea, from 14 different countries on four continents; nine moved here from an Asian country. Together this cohort of immigrants, which make up nearly one- fourth of the women in the self-made ranks, is worth an estimated $18.4 billion—23% of the total.



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This is the fifth year that&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;has celebrated the nation’s most successful women. The U.S. continues to serve as a beacon for ambitious women who want to transform industries, be it in retail, defense or other industries. In spite of the federal government’s crackdown on immigration, the nation’s most successful immigrant women continue to embody the power of the American Dream.



Thai Lee, who is the most successful woman immigrant in the country, has lived that dream, working very hard along the way. Lee, who was born in Bangkok, grew up in South Korea but moved to the U.S., where she and her older sister lived with a family friend and attended high school in Amherst, Massachusetts. Lee later attended Amherst College to study economics and biology, and received her M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1985. 



She went on to work at U.S. companies like Procter &amp; Gamble and American Express for four years, but in 1989 she and her then husband bought a software reseller for less than $1 million. They renamed it SHI International, which now works with customers like Boeing and Johnson &amp; Johnson and reported $10 billion in sales in 2018.



China native&nbsp;Weili Dai, Panda Express cofounder&nbsp;Peggy Cherng&nbsp;and Turkish-American billionaire&nbsp;Eren Ozmen, who grew up in Diyarbakir—a city in Turkey close to the Syrian border—all similarly moved to the U.S. in pursuit of a better education. Ozmen sold baklava and worked as a janitor at aerospace and defense company Sierra Nevada to support herself while attending business school at the University of Nevada, Reno. 



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Today she is the president and majority owner of Sierra Nevada, which racked up $1.9 billion in sales in 2018 and counts NASA as one of its clients. “Look at the United States and what women can do here, compared to the rest of the world. That is why we feel we have a legacy to leave behind,” Ozmen told&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;in&nbsp;2018. &nbsp;&nbsp;



Other women moved here in search of a better life and more opportunities. Makeup mogul Anastasia Soare immigrated from Romania to Los Angeles in 1989 and took a job in a beauty salon. Three years later she quit to start her own business and in 2000 launched her eyebrow products line, Anastasia Beverly Hills, now valued at over $3 billion. 



Forever 21 cofounder&nbsp;Jin Sook Chang&nbsp;pursued a similar path: She and her husband came to the U.S. from South Korea in 1981. Chang worked as a hairdresser for three years, while her husband worked&nbsp;three jobs. The couple used $11,000 they had saved to open a 900-square-foot clothing store in Los Angeles. Now Forever 21 has over 815 stores and an estimated $3.4 billion in annual revenue.



Another industry where women immigrants make their mark is technology. Twenty women entrepreneurs on&nbsp;Forbes’ list built a fortune in tech, including seven immigrants. One of those is Oracle co-CEO Safra Catz. Originally from Israel, Catz joined the software giant Oracle in 1999. Although Catz is not a founder, she has overseen more than 130 acquisitions worth a total of $60 billion and has become one of the top-paid CEOs in the country. Just in 2017, Oracle paid her $135 million in cash and stock, which helped her join the billionaire ranks in 2019.



Here’s the complete list of immigrants on this year’s list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women:



Thai Lee



Net worth: $3 billion



Country of origin: South Korea



Source of wealth: IT provider



Peggy Cherng



Net worth: $1.7 billion



Country of origin: Burma (Myanmar)



Source of wealth: fast food



Jin Sook Chang



Net worth: $1.5 billion



Country of origin: South Korea



Source of wealth: fashion



Eren Ozmen



Net worth: $1.4 billion



Country of origin: Turkey



Source of wealth: aerospace



Jayshree Ullal



Net worth: $1.4 billion



Country of origin: United Kingdom



Source of wealth: computer networking



Anastasia Soare



Net worth: $1.2 billion



Country of origin: Romania



Source of wealth: cosmetics



Safra Catz



Net worth: $1.1 billion



Country of origin: Israel



Source of wealth: software



Neerja Sethi



Net worth: $1 billion



Country of origin: India



Source of wealth: IT consulting



Weili Dai



Net worth: $960 million



Country of origin: China



Source of wealth: semiconductors



Christel DeHaan



Net worth: $950 million



Country of origin: Germany



Source of wealth: timeshares



Kit Crawford



Net worth: $890 million



Country of origin: Canada



Source of wealth: Clif Bar



Rihanna



Net worth: $600 million



Country of origin: Barbados



Source of wealth: cosmetics, music



Theresia Gouw



Net worth: $580 million



Country of origin: Indonesia



Source of wealth: venture capital



Celine Dion



Net worth: $450 million



Country of origin: Canada



Source of wealth: music



Adi Tatarko



Net worth: $430 million



Country of origin: Israel



Source of wealth: home design



Neha Narkhede



Net worth: $360 million



Country of origin: India



Source of wealth: software



Sonia Gardner



Net worth: $310 million



Country of origin: Morocco



Source of wealth: finance



Ashley Chen



Net worth: $300 million



Country of origin: Taiwan



Source of wealth: IT provider



Toni Ko



Net worth: $270 million



Country of origin: South Korea



Source of wealth: cosmetics



-Deniz Cam; Forbes Staff

Tag: immigrant

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Rihanna, Celine Dion, Safra Catz: Here Are The Most Successful Immigrant Women In The US