The Impact of Immigrant Innovators

Ramakrishnan writes "The Wall Street Journal is carrying a report on immigrant innovators and entrepreneurs. According to the piece, nearly a quarter of all California startups which went into business between 1995 and 2005 had an immigrant as a founding member. These businesses, together, employ almost half a million workers and generated about $50 billion in sales in the year 2005. The study seems quite topical, given recent discussions in the U.S. capital. From the article: 'Supporters of an immigration bill are likely to use the study to argue the importance of foreign-born workers to the U.S. economy. An immigration bill passed by the last Congress and heavily lobbied by business groups would have greatly increased the number of green cards available to skilled workers. Business has long argued that the U.S. schools aren't turning out enough scientists, mathematicians and engineers, and that the economy will lose its competitive edge without more skilled foreign workers.'"

Comments

Lobbyist Number Games

[Tablizer]

nearly a quarter of all California startups which went into business between 1995 and 2005 had an immigrant as a founding member.

Being that California's population is more than a quarter non-native born, this statistic does not mean much.

Re:This will not end well.

[David Greene]

1.) Why didn't they immigrate legally like millions of others have?

According to some reports, there are a couple tens of millions of undocumented workers in this country. Given the maximum number of visas allocated in any given year, it would take on average about 4,000 years for someone to legally enter this country from the less-favored areas of the world. I don't know about you, but I would have a hard time waiting that long.

2.) Why do they get to take jobs that would otherwise be high-paying jobs for legal residents? Do they realize if they were legal, they would get higher wages?

Of course they do! They aren't stupid, despite the stereotypes. That's why they want a path to citizenship.

And what about their responsibility to follow our laws?

This country has a long and proud history of civil disobediance concerning unjust laws. I don't know about you, but I'm doing that right now every time I watch a DVD on my MythTV box. I'd say our new neighbors are learning quite quickly, wouldn't you?

With a completely open border, anybody could come in unchecked. Fugitives, Al Queda, drug dealers, and others would have a field day.

Classic fear-mongering argument. Are you really so afraid of other people? How sad.

It is not our responsibility to house the entire world; our responsibility is to provide an opportunity for our legal residents.

Our responsibility is to our fellow human beings, regarless of race, creed, country of origin or any of the other silly things we use to divide ourselves against each other