BusinessWeek : Immigration Can Fuel U.S. Innovation—and Job Growth

Bloomberg Businessweek ^ | 07/12/2010 | Chris Farrell

[SeekAndFind]

Lost amid the heated debate over U.S. policy is a key point: Immigrant entrepreneurs and skilled workers are a boon to the economy.

Arizona may be ground zero for the conflict over U.S. immigration policy, but it takes only a few minutes of watching cable television news and scanning local op-ed pages to see how raw and divisive the matter has become in the nation's political sphere.

Yet with all the heated rhetoric about illegals, border security, amnesty, racial profiling, and other incendiary topics, one aspect of immigration isn't emphasized enough: the job-creating potential of immigrant entrepreneurs. They're the vanguard in America's global competition for entrepreneurial talent and innovative ideas. The nation needs to encourage more entrepreneurs from other nations to call America home. Their energy is the elixir of future economic growth.

Take a recent study by the McKinsey Global Institute on U.S. multinational corporations. In Growth and competitiveness in the United States: The role of its multinational companies, the consulting firm notes that big business comprises less than 1 percent all U.S. companies, yet the 2,270 multinational corporations in its database accounted for 31 percent of the growth in inflation-adjusted gross domestic product from 1990 to 2007. Even more important, U.S. multinational corporations have contributed 41 percent of gains in labor productivity since 1990—and 53 percent of the productivity increases during expansions.

The consultants highlight the role immigrants play in bolstering the competitiveness of American multinationals, especially helping the U.S. "lead the world in the number of engineers, scientists, and business professionals who are ready to work in a multinational company."

[kabar]

The problem is that the vast majority of immigrants are poor, uneducated, and unskilled. 53% of immigrant headed households are on welfare. We don't have a merit based system of immigration. It is a kinship system.

Importing Poverty: Immigration and Poverty in the United States: A Book of Charts by Robert Rector, Heritage Foundation

[SharpRightTurn]

“I personally know to highly intelligent, educated, productive European immigrants who had went through a lot of trouble and expense to stay here. One is now living in Canada because it just didn’t work out here with the feds. If only they had been ignorant, uneducated and sneaked across the Mexican looking to be parasites.”

We’re getting plenty of immigrants from Ghana, Burkino Faso, etc. who have no job skills, no savings, and immediately game the system for as much public assistance as possible. They also insist in getting in on their fair share of crime.

I suppose your acquintances just didn’t fit the profile we’re now looking for in our immigrant applicant pool.

[kabar]

And legal, uneducated, and poor immigrants are a drag on society.

The latest data show 22.1 million immigrants holding jobs in the U.S. with an estimated 7 million being illegal aliens. By increasing the supply of labor between 1980 and 2000, immigration reduced the average annual earnings of native-born men by an estimated $1,700 or roughly 4 percent. Among natives without a high school education, who roughly correspond to the poorest tenth of the workforce, the estimated impact was even larger, reducing their wages by 7.4 percent. The reduction in earnings occurs regardless of whether the immigrants are legal or illegal, permanent or temporary. It is the presence of additional workers that reduces wages, not their legal status.

Milton Friedman said, “You cannot simultaneously have free immigration and a welfare state.” We have both.

[kabar]

What you are saying is that we need a merit based immigration system. I agree. We take in 1.2 million legal immigrants a year, most of whom are poor and uneducated.

We also bring in 125,000 LEGAL FOREIGN WORKERS A MONTH. Does that make sense when 25 million Americans are looking for full time employment?

125,000 brand new foreign workers with work permits each month -- HERE'S THE PROOF

[kabar]

AZ passed an English only proposition in 2006 with 75% of the vote.

[spectre]

Here is what is NOT being talked about.

While we remain focused on sealing the Border...not enough attention is being paid to Illegals who entered this country legally with Visas and never left.

There's no way to search for those who overstay their Visas.

"AS of May 2006, the most currant data available, 4 million to 5.5 million people had entered the U.S. legally and then remained after their visas had expired.

An additional 250,000 to 500,000 people entered legally with cards and then stayed. Our tracking system is practically non existant.

For the most part, only the ignorant poor and dangerous convicted criminals are crossing the desert.

We must conclude it's imperative we identify and fine the people who employ "illegals". That's the biggest deterent we have in our war against Illegal Aliens.

[McGavin999]

Who writes this crap? Do they really think that the educated and ambitious people are crossing the borders illegally? Have they seen these folks with their demands that we educate, feed and clothe their children and then ignore their kids when they turn into gang memebers?

If we got rid of illegal immigrants then perhaps we could open our doors to LEGAL immigrants who would contribute something instead of draining our pockets.

[muawiyah]

Pre-Lyndon Johnson the needs of the nation weren’t considered. We still used a national quota system ~

[muawiyah]

"Fine"?

We need the death penalty! Examples must be made.

[throwback]

It's true. I've witnessed many new and innovative leaf blowing techniques employed by undocumented blowers.

[Non-Sequitur]

Does BusinessWeek not understand the difference between legal immigration and illegal immigration? For the first there is little or no opposition. For the later there is.

[Non-Sequitur]

Does BusinessWeek not understand the difference between legal immigration and illegal immigration? For the first there is little or no opposition. For the later there is.

[depressed in 06]

More than 80 percent of graduates of Indian origin and 90 percent of Chinese graduates still lived in America five years after graduation, according to McKinsey.

Illegally?

So, is the proposal to give amnesty to all PhDs who sneak into the country, because, they are likely to start a business? What are we going to do with all the uneducated strawberry pickers who are pissing on my strawberries?

[heiss]

Your proof is an unverified claim by an advocady group. For example, 300,000 au pair etc permits annually do not constitute immigration or work visas to the US. The numbers looks fishy.

Anyway, merit based work visa system and reducing the number of average skilled foreign visa holders would make sense. We certainly need to get the people who will launch startups and make inventions for US companies. Relatively easy way to screen them would be e.g. MBA from top-5 schools and science PhDs from top-5 or top-10 schools.

[Maverick68]

The people walking across the desert aren’t actors, athletes, politicians, or CEO’s.
They aren’t going to be living in gated communities or high-rises.
The people who see no problem with illegals AREN’T the ones who will be affected by them most.
The people who see no problem with illegals live in communities where there only contact with them will be smiling at them as they clean the pool or mow the lawn.
The people who see no problem with illegals can afford personal security details.
F## you and F## illegals....

[MEGoody]

:::sigh::: Once again, the press fails to note the difference between legal and illegal immigration. I doubt many people have a problem with legal immigration. It’s the ILLEGALS we have a problem with.

[kabar]

Visa overstays comprise up to 40% of our illegal population. The US-VISIT program passed in 1996 was supposed to track everyone who entered and left the country. It has never been fully implemented.

Turning off the job magnet is essential. Programs like E-verify must be made mandatory like they are in AZ when businesses can lose their license if they are found hiring illegals knowingly. We have the databases to get a handle on this problem, but there is not the political will to enforce our existing laws.

[RC2]

Our country can only handle so many immigrants if we want our own wages to remain stable. The next thing this country needs to do is look at our education system. High Tech companies can’t find qualified employees so they seek them through the immigrants.

[kabar]

Your proof is an unverified claim by an advocady group. For example, 300,000 au pair etc permits annually do not constitute immigration or work visas to the US. The numbers looks fishy.

Fishy my a$$. We issued 951,247 work permits during the latest period the information was available from the USG. We bring in 1.2 million LEGAL PERMANENT IMMIGRANTS ANNUALLY. The majority of them join the labor force and work here.

These numbers include new temporaty work permits and green cards. The data are furnished by the government. Did you even read what was at the link?

And it is a sad commentary on our education system that we don't have a sufficient number of Americans getting advanced degrees in engineering and the hard sciences. One of the reasons has been the entry of immigrants who have depressed wages for such jobs making them unattractive to qualified Americans.

Immigration has also affected the demographics of this country. By 2023 half of the children 18 and under will be minorities reflecting the fact that 87% of our 1.2 million legal immigrants annually are minorities. The drop out rate for Hispanics is over 50% and they are the fastest growing segment of our population with a birthrate twice the national average. And the Hispanic out of wedlock birthrate is over 50% exceeded only by the black rate of 68%.

Bureau of the Census--An Older and More Diverse Nation by Midcentury"

[kabar]

And the immigrants come cheaper and they are subsidized by the US taxpayer.