To produce their study published in the American Economic Review: Insights, the researchers analyzed data from more than 1.2 million companies created in the United States, reports MIT News, the website of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Their results suggest that
“immigrants act more like ‘job creators’ than ‘job takers’ and founders born outside the United States are instrumental in high-growth entrepreneurship”.
In fact, says Frenchman Pierre Azoulay, currently a researcher at MIT, immigrants create more companies of all sizes than native Americans – “more small businesses, more medium-sized businesses, and more businesses with the potential to become very large.”
Space X and Uber founded by immigrants
Just think of Space X, Uber or Moderna, companies founded or co-founded respectively by Elon Musk, Garrett Camp and Noubar Afeyan – all immigrants, underlines another study carried out for the National Foundation think tank for American Policy. These firms “have brought to market a variety of products and services that are useful to American consumers and that make American businesses more productive.”
This second study takes into account 44 companies in the Tech sector which have created an average of 760 jobs each, specifies the Carnegie Corporation. Its authors believe that
“immigrants represent more than 70% of key management or product development positions in these companies”.
“Some of the most successful American companies today were founded by people who first came to the United States as students,” note the magazine Forbes about this study. This is particularly the case for almost a quarter of start-ups which are now worth 1 billion dollars.
“The United States is shooting itself in the foot”
A graduate of the National Institute of Telecommunications in Paris, Pierre Alouzay worries at the microphone of public radio WBUR, of Boston, of the consequences of the policies implemented by the Trump administration and of the pandemic. The country has reduced the number of immigrants as employers struggle to fill millions of job vacancies:
“The United States is shooting itself in the foot by creating so many barriers for people who would want to come, especially highly skilled professionals.”