Immigrants Behind More U.S. Startups

National Journal
June 5, 2012

Foreign-born people are twice as likely as American natives to want to start a business, and in 2011, immigrants followed through on their dreams to launch 25 percent of U.S. startups, a recent report finds.

The power of immigrant-driven innovation and creativity is especially felt in the technology and engineering industries, where about a quarter of companies launched between 1995 and 2005 were founded by at least one immigrant, according to a 2007 study from Duke University.

Washington has responded in kind, including attempts to expand work visas to specifically include highly skilled workers and most recently by introducing Startup 2.0, legislation designed to keep foreign entrepreneurs who have graduated from universities in the country.

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