Immigrant contributions to the U.S. Economy

A new SBA Office of Advocacy sponsored report by Robert W. Fairlie examines the contributions of immigrants to the U.S. economy. Some of its findings are:  

Immigrants are nearly 30 percent more likely to start a business than are nonimmigrants, and they represent 16.7 percent of all new business owners in the United States.

States Rebel Over Deportations

Lawmakers and law-enforcement officials in several states are turning against a mandatory federal program that is a cornerstone of the Obama administration's immigration policy.

The Secure Communities initiative is designed to spot and deport illegal immigrants who have been convicted of crimes. Under the program, fingerprints of people booked into a jail are transmitted to a database reviewed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. If found to be in the U.S. illegally, they can face deportation.

Immigrant Entrepreneurs Leaving the U.S. to Become Our Competition

Restrictionists often perpetuate the myth that immigrants are not needed in our current economy—that they take jobs and hurt American workers.  But research has shown that immigrants not only grow the economy, but help create jobs and are part of the solution to our economic woes.  However, while immigrants can create jobs and start new businesses here in the U.S., they’re choosing to do it somewhere else in recent years due to our complicated and dysfunctional immigration system. 


The most recent report to shed light on this issue is from the Kauffman Foundation, which recently released The Grass is Indeed Greener in India and China for Returnee Entrepreneurs.