Is the U.S. Turning Away Entrepreneurs?

Posted by: Mark Marich on April 22, 2010 Source: Policy Dialogue on Entrepreneurship

ABCNews has an interesting article, 'Shooting Itself in the Foot': Is U.S. Turning Away Entrepreneurs?, describing the growing movement in favor of new immigration policy specifically for skilled foreign workers as immigration reform becomes a future hot button issue.

Supporters like Microsoft founder Bill Gates who declared that U.S. immigration policy should have "an exception for smart people" see the flight of highly skilled immigrants from the United States as a growing economic problem because it stifles entrepreneurship and job growth.

Immigrants across the United States own 12.5 percent of all businesses, both big and small. In the technology and engineering fields, nearly a quarter of all businesses are founded by immigrants and they account for a significant chunk of jobs.

Many of these entrepreneurs came to the United States as students and stayed. But now, much of this labor force is eyeing returning to their home countries because of better opportunities there and visa constraints in the United States.

Dane Stangler form the Kauffman Foundation told ABCNews: "A lot of these high skilled immigrants we're talking about start companies, they're making more jobs for Americans."  "If we're going to either affirmatively shut the door or somehow ignore this source of entrepreneurship and source of job creation, then we will be losing jobs because we won't have this subset of entrepreneurs," Stangler added.

Read more, here.

Category:  Immigration