Posted on 06/14/2007 6:54:43 AM PDT by fmkl
Ninety-six percent of immigrant founders of technology and engineering companies between 1995 and 2005 held bachelor's degrees, and 74 percent held graduate or postgraduate degrees, according to a study the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation released Monday.
Seventy-five percent of the highest degrees among immigrant entrepreneurs were in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields, the Kauffman Foundation said in a release. Fifty-three percent of the immigrant founders of U.S.-based technology and engineering companies completed their highest degrees in U.S. universities. <A HREF="http://dc.bizjournals.com/event.ng/Type=click&FlightID=21264&AdID=30521&TargetID=1292&Segments=1,16,973,2183,3301,3622,3862,4117,4263,4611,4614,4829&Targets=3394,61,1292,2014,3078,3381,3619,3866,4009,4337,4344,4550&Values=25,30,46,50,60,72,84,93,100,110,150,155,202,295,333,473,565,736,775,830,872,894,949,951,959,960,961,962,980,994,996,997,1009&RawValues=GEOMAJORMETRO%2Corange%2520county%2CDOMAINTYPE%2C25%2CST_VERT_TOPIC%2Creal_estate__commercial&Redirect=http://www.tivol.com" target="_top"><IMG SRC="http://ll.bizjournals.com/ads/dc/tivol/Tivol_Cube_300_x_250_v3.gif" WIDTH=300 HEIGHT=250 BORDER=0></A>
Researchers at Duke University and the University of California-Berkeley conducted the study, which included a series of in-depth interviews with:
• 144 immigrant company founders on their educational attainment, degree types, reasons for entering the United States and other factors related to their entrepreneurial activities
• 87 Indian, 57 Chinese and 29 Taiwanese company founders to ask where they received their undergraduate education
• 1,572 companies in 11 technology centers to determine whether a key founder was foreign-born and the founder's country of birth.
Nationwide, immigrant-founded companies produced $52 billion in sales and employed 450,000 workers in 2005. The majority of these immigrant entrepreneurs came from India, United Kingdom, China, Taiwan, Japan and Germany.
"Our research confirms that advanced education in science, technology, engineering and math is correlated with high rates of entrepreneurship and innovation," lead researcher Vivek Wadhwa, executive in residence, Pratt School of Engineering, Master of Engineering Management Program at Duke University, said in the release. "The U.S. economy depends on these high rates of entrepreneurship and innovation to maintain its global edge."
Among the study's findings:
• More than half of the foreign-born founders of U.S. technology and engineering businesses initially came to the United States to study. Very few came with the sole purpose of starting a company. Almost 40 percent of immigrant founders entered the country because of a job opportunity, with only 1.6 percent entering the country with the sole purpose of entrepreneurship. They typically founded companies after working and residing in the United States for an average of 13 years.
• Immigrant founders were educated in a diverse set of universities in both their home countries and across the United States. No single U.S. institution stands out as a source of immigrant founders. Similarly, those who received their undergraduate degrees in India or China graduated from a diverse assortment of institutions. Even the famed Indian Institutes of Technology educated only 15 percent of Indian technology and engineering company founders.
• Immigrant entrepreneurs tend to move to cosmopolitan technology centers. The regions with the largest immigrant population also tend to have the greatest number of technology startups. On average, 31 percent of the engineering and technology companies founded from 1995 to 2005 in the 11 technology centers that were surveyed had an immigrant as a key founder. This compares with the national average of 25.3 percent.
• Technology centers with a greater concentration of immigrant entrepreneurs in their state averages include Silicon Valley (52.4 percent), New York City (43.8 percent) and Chicago (35.8 percent). Three technology centers had a below-average rate of immigrant-founded companies: Portland, Ore. (17.8 percent), Research Triangle Park (18.7 percent) and Denver (19.4 percent).
More information about the study is available on the Kauffman Foundation's Web site.
LEGAL? or ILLEGAL? The article does not say. Sure they came on a student visa...but, I’ve heard 1/2 of all illegals came on visas that have since expired....
A secure Southern and Northern border would have no affect on immigrants like these coming to the US because these immigrants are LEGAL. They followed the rules and would benefit from enforcing current laws.
That’s wonderful but these were LEGAL immigrants.
I think the underlying purpose of this article is to point out how good and hard working immigrants are and we (anti ILlegal immigration folks) should be ashamed of being so racist.
They just can’t see the difference between LEGAL and ILlegal.
I love immigrants, and heartily welcome them to the US!!!
Legal immigrants, that is...
They would do a lot better if they weren’t forced to fight their way upstream against a flood of illegals.
And you still don’t know how many of these highly educated people came from Mexico. Probably none. So what good do they do this country? How many lettuce pickers do we really need?
Mexico dumps 20 million and they still don't make the list.
Kansas City is a sanctuary city.
I know. That is why I assigned the underlying purose to the article.
My parent thake their dog to a veterinarian who is from Mexico, and is one of the best vets within 200 miles.
Sure you did. You just didn't realize that we did too, and welcome people like these with open arms.
Indeed. I think it'd be enlightening to hear the opinions on illegal immigration of these company founders.
...then again, we'd never hear the results.
As long time metro K.C., be very, very wary of anything put out by "Kauffman Foundation."
Ewing Kauffman (original owner of K.C. Royals and founder of Marion Labs), was pretty conservative, his adopted daughter, Julia Irene, definitely IS NOT and those chosen to be on "her" foundation follow her directions.
Kauffman Foundation also back some over-the-edge liberal groups and the mere fact that they use the label "immigrants," is somewhat suspect.
“I didn’t know this........”
Honestly, that’s a tip-off that you haven’t been in graduate school
in the USA (in sciences/engineering) for a couple of decades.
The first language for the majority of grad students/postdocs
in many university research labs is Chinese (Mandarin or Cantonese).
And yes, they are LEGAL residents of the USA.
A totally different breed of person from the ILLEGALS invading the USA.
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