Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship and business creation is fundamental to a healthy economy. Companies less than five years old create an average of 1.5 million new jobs for Americans each year.† Immigrants in particular play an important role in creating jobs as they are more likely to start a new business than the rest of the population. Despite this, the United States lacks a startup visa to welcome immigrant entrepreneurs with a proven idea and solid investment. This results in many business owners struggling to stay—at a cost to our economy and its workers.
† Jason Wiens and Chris Jackson, “The Importance of Young Firms for Economic Growth,” September 13, 2015. Available online.
Entrepreneur Sees Fellow MIT Grads Made to Leave the U.S. Due to Immigration Policies
Spanish-born Bernat Olle hopes to revolutionize healthcare by using microbes as medicine. Olle is the CEO and co-founder of Vedanta Biosciences, a Cambridge-based company whose technology alters how the trillions of microbes in our body interact with our immune system. “It’s a completely new way to approach medicine,” Olle says,… Read More
Spanish-Born Entrepreneur Creates Big Ideas for Small Spaces
Today, access to affordable housing presents a significant challenge. Ivan Fernandez de Casadevante is part of a team of recent Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduates that thinks they have a solution to the problem. The Spanish native is a co-founder of OriSystems, a company that grew out of… Read More
Immigration Policy Splits the Startup That’s Making a Wildly Popular History Teaching Platform
Thomas Ketchell hopes to transform America’s education system through a simple digital platform. The Belgian native is the CEO and co-founder of Sutori, a tool that allows students and educators to create free interactive timelines — similar to those on Facebook or Twitter — to document historical events. Ketchell first… Read More
How Tech Startup Founders Are Hacking Immigration
Standing under fluorescent lights at a San Francisco hospital, employees of Medisas Inc. were celebrating the debut of their medical records software. It was the product of two years of planning, coding, and countless meetings with hospital administrators, all driven by Gautam Sivakumar, the startup’s founder and chief executive officer. But Sivakumar spent… Read More
An Immigrant Family Behind America’s Pita Craze
In elementary school, Karen Toufayan’s friends never knew what to make of her lunch. While the others munched on Wonder Bread, Karen usually unwrapped a pita. “Nobody knew anything about pita bread,” says Karen. “They couldn’t even pronounce it. People were like, ‘What is that?’” She says it was like… Read More
Immigrant Voices: An Ohio Entrepreneur Who Sees the World Differently
Dr. Ayman Salem came to the United States from Egypt in 1998 to pursue a PhD in material science and engineering at Drexel University. Today he lives in Dayton, Ohio, where he started his own company, Materials Resources, LLC (MRL). In this podcast, Dr. Salem talks about founding and growing… Read More
Study Touts Benefits of Immigration
Foreign-born residents in Toledo contribute millions through spending power and paying taxes, and they have offset some of the area’s decades of population loss, according to a report released today detailing the economic impact of immigrants. The report — issued by Welcome Toledo-Lucas County, the county’s welcoming initiative, and developed… Read More
Report: Foreign-born residents strengthening Toledo
Immigrants continue to strengthen communities across the United States, including Toledo and other Ohio cities, according to research done by The Partnership for a New American Economy. A series of research briefs unveiled by Lucas County commissioners Tuesday offer insight into the ways foreign-born residents of Toledo and other Ohio… Read More
Lucas County Commissioners Release Report on Immigration Statistics in Toledo
Lucas County Commissioners released a report Tuesday that gives the community more insight on the topic of immigrants resettling in the area. The report “New Americans in Toledo: A Snapshot of the Demographic and Economic Contributions of Immigrants” was compiled by Partnership for a New American Economy and features… Read More
Study: Immigrants Contribute Enormously to Toledo Economy
The group Partnership for a New American Economy says immigrants spend more than $240 million in our community. According to a study released Tuesday: Immigrants in Toledo pay $31 million various taxes…are 2-times more likely to have a college degree and are 2-times more likely to own their own business. Toledo’s losing population,… Read More
Immigrants Create American Jobs
How many jobs do immigrant entrepreneurs create? The data shows that firms owned by immigrants provide millions of jobs for U.S. workers and generate billions of dollars in annual income. With new business formation slowing in the United States, immigrant entrepreneurs have a critical role in many parts of the country, creating jobs for all Americans.
What percent of businesses are owned by immigrants?
The act of moving to another country is inherently courageous and risky. So, it comes as no surprise that immigrants tend to be more entrepreneurial than the rest of the population. In 2019, immigrant entrepreneurs made up 21.7 percent of all business owners in the United States, despite making up just over 13.6 percent of the population and 17.1 percent of the U.S. labor force.
Where Immigrants Are Most Entrepreneurial, 2019
Immigrants and the Recovery from the Great Recession
Foreign-born entrepreneurs and the jobs they created were instrumental in the recovery from the Great Recession. Between 2007 and 2011, immigrant entrepreneurs founded a large share of new businesses across the country and in several key states.
Share of New Businesses Founded by Immigrants in Select States, 2007-2011
Which Industries Are Immigrant Businesses Most Prevalent?
As important as the frequency with which immigrants start businesses is the diversity of fields in which they start them. Immigrants start more than 25 percent of all businesses in seven of the eight sectors that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics expects to grow the fastest over the next decade. They also play a large role in founding both Main Street businesses1 and high-tech firms.2
Sources:
1 David Dyssegaard Kallick, “Bringing Vitality to Main Street: How Immigrant Small Businesses Help Local Economies Grow,” New York: Fiscal Policy Institute and Americas Society/Council of the Americas, 2015. Available online.
2 Vivek Wadhwa et al., “America’s New Immigrant Entrepreneurs: Part I,” SSRN Scholarly Paper (Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network, 2007). Available online.
Share of Businesses Started by Immigrant Entrepreneurs in Seven Key Sectors, 2007-2011
Immigrants Found both Main Street Businesses and High-Tech Firms
Business Ownership Among Immigrant Groups
Looking at specific ethnic and national origin groups within the immigrant population, we find that many exhibit entrepreneurship rates higher than the native-born. At right we highlight the particular contributions of Middle Eastern business owners in Detroit, a group frequently credited with helping to spur the city’s recent economic comeback.
Sources:
3 Steve Tobocman, “Guide to Immigrant Economic Development,” Welcoming America, accessed July 5, 2016. Available online.
4 New American Economy, "Reason for Reform: Entrepreneurship," October 2016. Available online.
Entrepreneurship Rates for Immigrant Subgroups, 2014
Immigrants and the Fortune 500
Consistent with past NAE research, a significant number of firms on the most recent Fortune 500 list were founded by immigrants or their children. These companies make enormous contributions to both the U.S. and global economy. They also live on beyond their founders, generating jobs and revenue long after their visionaries retire or move on.
Visa Obstacles
Currently, there is no visa for those who want to come to the United States, start a company, and create jobs for U.S. workers. To access a visa, many immigrant entrepreneurs choose to sell a majority stake in their company and then apply for a visa as a high-skilled worker rather than as the owner of the firm. Our broken H-1B visa system, however, means that many entrepreneurs cannot get a visa before the cap is exhausted each year. In 2016, the White House proposed a rule that would make it easier for entrepreneurs to remain in the country, but it is clear a more permanent, legislative fix is needed.5
Sources:
5 Issie Lapowski, “White House Proposes a New Immigration Rule for Entrepreneurs,” WIRED, accessed December 14, 2016. Available online.
6“USCIS Completes the H-1B Cap Random Selection Process for FY 2016,” USCIS, accessed December 14, 2016. Available online.
Low-Skilled Entrepreneurship
Immigrant entrepreneurs are hardly a monolithic group. While much of the attention is focused on high-skilled foreign-born entrepreneurs that drive innovation in Silicon Valley, immigrant entrepreneurs with humbler backgrounds continue to play critical roles in the U.S. economy. Founding retail shops, restaurants, and personal service businesses, these immigrant entrepreneurs help towns and cities across the United States stay vibrant. In sum, the over 2.1 million immigrant entrepreneurs with less than a college degree have a significant economic impact, creating billions of dollars in economic activity and providing jobs to thousands of Americans.
Top Industries Among Immigrant Entrepreneurs with Less than a Bachelor’s Degree, 2015
Entrepreneurship Rates of Workers in Various Demographic Groups, 2015
Business Income of Less-Skilled Immigrant Entrepreneurs, 2015
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