Aside from Native Americans (a story we should study more carefully), virtually all Americans at our founding were immigrants. Throughout our history immigrants have contributed enormously to our economic growth and wealth. Even today the United States is home to over 125 foreign-born billionaires, making up a massive segment of the nation’s top wealth brackets. Most of these leaders are self-made, primarily building their fortunes in the technology, finance, and aerospace sectors.
These immigrants did not become billionaires by taking income from the rest of us. They became billionaires by creating products and services that we benefited from. They became rich by raising our (the common man’s) incomes and standards of living.
Immigrants represent a disproportionately high percentage of business owners relative to their share of the total U.S. population even today. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Annual Business Survey and economic research groups, there are over 6 million business owners in the United States who were born abroad.
Immigrants also occupy a massive share of top leadership positions. A landmark study by the National Foundation for American Policy found that nearly 80% of America’s privately held, billion-dollar companies (“unicorns”) have either an immigrant founder or an immigrant in a top executive role, such as CEO or Chief Technology Officer (CTO). While not all current CEOs are foreign-born, 46% of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants. Over 1 in 5 business owners nationwide is an immigrant, and nearly 4 out of 5 highly valued modern tech companies rely on foreign-born leadership at the executive level.
Why is this important and why should we oppose the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce immigration? Immigrants do not choose to come to America to change it. They come generally to join what it offers, which is personally freedom to work hard and prosper. We must never forget that in free markets, transactions benefit both the seller and the buyer—win-win. Attracting innovating and hardworking people from around the world lifts their incomes but also ours. Why would we want to slow or stop that process?
Foreign students studying in American universities and colleges are a temporary form of immigration (as are agricultural guest workers) from which we benefit in several ways. One benefit is making friends. Foreign students learn first-hand what America is about and take that understanding home with them. They are also an important export (i.e., they earn dollars for the schools that teach them), thus reducing our balance of payments deficit. Surely, we should encourage more students to come, but over the last four academic years the number of Chinese students studying here has fallen every year.
There are other benefits. Immigrants also tend to bring bits of their culture with them. This is most obvious for cuisine, the variety of which is a wonderful contribution to the quality of our lives. Along with hamburgers, hot dogs and T-bone steaks, I have first-rate Chinese, Japanese, Italian, French, Lebanese, Mexican, Peruvian and mixed-cuisine restaurants within walking distance.
We need much more legal immigration (those vetted for the appropriateness of their character and skills) while preventing the illegal type. Those who are afraid of immigrants should move somewhere else themselves in my opinion.
Warren's space 