High-Skilled Immigration has Benefited the American Economy

High-Skilled Immigration has Benefited the American Economy

Twenty-five percent of the American venture-backed companies that went public over the past 15 years were created by immigrants (table 1). Those firms have created considerable wealth in the United States; the total dollar market value of all the immigrant-founded venture-backed companies formed in the country surpassed $500 billion in 2008. The study indicated high-technology manufacturing, information technology, and life sciences are sectors of concentration for venture-backed companies founded by immigrants. Forty percent of the venture-backed companies that were publicly traded and operating in high-technology manufacturing were founded by immigrants who have employed more than half of the employees working in the American venture-backed high-tech manufacturing market. The National Venture Capital Association estimates that 220,000 people in the United States are employed by immigrant-founded venture-backed public companies. [1]

Table 1: Percentage of Immigrant-Founded Venture-Backed Public Companies by Year Established

According to research conducted by the National Science Foundation (NSF), highly-skilled immigrants are crucial to the well-being of the United States, primarily the science and engineering sectors. The National Science Foundation’s research noted that a continued drop in science and engineering degrees would be the cause of a long-term decrease in the science and engineering labor force. The NSF expects an increased rate of retirement in the science and engineering labor force because more than half of the employees with science and engineering degrees are 40 or older.  If a decreased rate of growth occurs in these industries, the growth in research and development experienced by the United States since the 1940s may become unsustainable, and could constrain technological change and economic growth. The Foundation believes this shortage could be alleviated if the United States attracts more highly skilled immigrants.