As the US election season draws a mix of reactions from candidates on the issue of immigration – from xenophobic rejection to reform and inclusivity – a new study highlights immigrants bring enormous economic benefits to America with their innovation and entrepreneurial qualities.
Immigrants have started more than half (44 of 87) of America’s startup companies valued at $1 billion dollars or more and are key members of management or product development teams in over 70 percent of these companies, the National Foundation for American Policy reveals.
Americans have long acknowledged the vital contributions immigrants from around the world make to give the United States competitive edge in an array of fields including arts and sciences. For example thousands of Indian- Americans and Pakistani-Americans have served in the IT, medical, academic and scientific research fields, benefitting from economic opportunity, favorable conditions and liberties the United States offers for research, innovation and development.
Immigration has acquired a new importance in the fast-globalizing competitive world and multicultural environment as top talent is widely considered a critical imperative to advancement with innovation and invention.
But the latest research coincides with an unprecedented rhetoric on immigration issues. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Ted Cruz have proposed building a wall to stop illegal immigration from Mexico and opposed United States’ taking in Syrian refugees. Other candidates including top Democratic contenders have tempered their positions but differ on approach to immigration reforms. Besides job market, trade deals and outsourcing, a number of domestic and international issues shape opinions of US politicians on immigration.
“Immigrants play a key role in creating new, fast-growing companies, as evidenced by the prevalence of foreign born founders and key personnel in the nation’s leading privately-held companies,” the study says.
Citing figures, the non-partisan and nonprofit organization reveals that immigrants have started more than half (44 of 87) of America’s startup companies valued at $1 billion dollars or more and are key members of management or product development teams in over 70 percent (62 of 87) of these companies.
According to Stuart Anderson, author and Executive Director, the research titled Immigrants and Billion Dollars Startups finds that among the billion dollar startup companies, immigrant founders have created an average of approximately 760 jobs per company in the United States.
“The collective value of the 44 immigrant-founded companies is $168 billion, which is close to half the value of the stock markets of Russia or Mexico, he says.
The research, according to the organization, involved conducting interviews and gathering information on the 87 U.S. startup companies valued at over $1 billion (as of January 1, 2016) that have yet to become publicly traded on the U.S. stock market and are tracked by The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones VentureSource.
“The findings help illustrate the increasing importance and contributions of immigrants to the U.S. economy,” Anderson notes.
The study finds that with 14 entrepreneurs on the list, India was the leading country of origin for the immigrant founders of billion dollar companies, followed by Canada and the United Kingdom with 8 each, Israel (7), Germany (4), China (3), France (2), Ireland (2) and 12 other countries with one.
As for business destinations, California was the headquarters of 32 of the 44 immigrant-founded companies, followed by New York (6), Massachusetts (4) and Illinois (2).
The research also profiles outstanding immigrant entrepreneurs including Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX; Garrett Camp, co-founder of Uber; Noubar Afeyan, co-founder of Moderna Therapeutics and 37 other companies, primarily through Flagship Ventures, the firm he heads; Jyoti Bansal, who waited 7 years for his employment-based green card to start AppDynamics, which employs 900 people and provides the equivalent of a 24/7 MRI for company websites; Amr Awadallah, co-founder of Cloudera, which allows organizations in various fields to profit from their data; Michelle Zatlyn, co-founder of CloudFlare, which uses the power of its global network to help websites with traffic and security; and other immigrant entrepreneurs.
According to the author, the study is one of the first to examine the role immigrants play on the management or product development teams in leading private companies in information technology, health, energy, financial services, and other sectors. The research found 62 of the 87 companies, or 71 percent, had at least one immigrant helping the company grow and innovate by filling a key management or product development position. Chief technology officer, CEO and vice president of engineering are the most common positions held by immigrants in these billion dollar startup companies.
Moreover, the study says the billion dollar startup companies with an immigrant founder excel at job creation.
The organization has recently proposed introduction of a US startup visa to enable foreign nationals who start companies and create jobs. Such an addition to the U.S. immigration system would be important since currently it can be difficult for foreign-born entrepreneurs to stay and grow their business due to the absence of a reliable immigration category, it argues.
