I am surprised that we even have FReepers peddling these myths. First, we are not getting the "Best and Brightest" through our legal immigration policies that bring in 1.1 million legal permanent immigrants a year. 20% lack even a high school degree. Only 12% are merit based. Immigrants have higher levels of poverty, use of welfare, and uninsured for health insurance than the native born. See my post #357.
Second, Entrepreneurship--Immigrants and natives have very similar rates of entrepreneurship — 11.7 percent of natives and 11.5 percent of immigrants are self-employed. Among the top sending countries, self-employment is highest for immigrants from Korea (26 percent), Canada (24 percent), and the United Kingdom (17 percent). It is lowest for those from Haiti (6 percent), Honduras (5 percent), and Jamaica (3 percent).
40% of the largest U.S. companies were founded by immigrants or their children. Recent examples include Google, Ebay, and Intel. Think how many U.S. jobs were created because those individuals were allowed to come to our country. Protectionism won’t work in the long run. It will make us weaker and less competitive. Cruz understands this which is why he has my complete support. Walker didn’t finish college so he may have missed that.
What is your source for the 40% figure? It is the one being foisted on the uninformed using the Habeeb and Leven study that was echoing the same claim being put out by a lobbyist group.
Habeeb and Leven also note that 25 percent of technology firms established since 1995 have "at least one foreign-born founder." Again, this statistic includes companies with multiple founders, some of whom are not immigrants. It seems almost certain that the actual share of founders who are immigrants is about the same as the immigrant share of the working-age population (17 percent).
We know this because the percentage of immigrants and natives who are self-employed is the same: about 12 percent. Immigrants and natives are also very similar when we look at business income or number of employees. The bottom line is that entrepreneurship is not a distinguishing trait of immigrants as a group.
There are benefits from immigration, of course, as well as costs. And everyone can sympathize with those who want to come to our country legally in search of a better life. But if we are to arrive at a policy that best serves the interests of our country, we cannot rely on exaggeration, wishful thinking, and cliché. Instead, we must confront the facts and formulate policy accordingly.
Protectionism won’t work in the long run. It will make us weaker and less competitive. Cruz understands this which is why he has my complete support. Walker didn’t finish college so he may have missed that class.
Protectionism? How can you equate limits on legal immigration as protectionism? There is not a nation in the world that does not control its borders and limits immigration. Immigration is supposed to serve the national interest. Bringing in hundreds of thousands of unskilled and uneducated immigrants is not serving the national interest. And bringing in skilled immigrants has its limits. We have a surplus of labor with wages declining and labor participation rates at a 38 year low. If we truly had a labor shortage, wages would be going up, not down.