Then and Now: America's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs, Part VII
Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation Research Paper
Stanford Public Law Working Paper No. 2159875
Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University Working Paper No. 127
32 Pages Posted: 10 Oct 2012 Last revised: 18 Nov 2012
Date Written: October 1, 2012
Abstract
The period of unprecedented expansion of immigrant-led entrepreneurship that characterized the 1980s and 1990s has come to a close. Today, the growth rate of immigrant-founded companies nationwide, at 24.3 percent, has plateaued. In the high-tech hub of Silicon Valley, the proportion of immigrant-founded companies has dropped from 52.4 percent during 1995-2005 to 43.9 percent during 2006-2012.
Immigrant founders of engineering and technology companies have employed roughly 560,000 workers and generated an estimated $63 billion dollars in sales during this time. While the rate of growth of immigrant entrepreneurship has stagnated, these numbers nonetheless underscore the continuing importance of high-skilled immigrants to the maintenance and expansion of the national economy. These findings are interestingly complex, since the two major skilled-immigrant groups — Indian and Chinese — are starting companies at higher rates than they did previously. Historically and today, the United States continues to benefit directly from the contributions of such immigrants. Far from expendable, high-skilled immigrants will remain a critical asset for maintaining U.S. competitiveness in the global economy.
Keywords: immigrant, immigration, entrepreneur, HSI, high skill, highly skilled, policy, economy
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