Tom Friedman offered his thoughts on what we need to do to get the economy going in an op-ed piece at the New York Times. His take on how to revive the economy:
“Good-paying jobs don’t come from bailouts. They come from start-ups. And where
do start-ups come from? They come from smart, creative, inspired risk-takers.
How do we get more of those? There are only two ways: grow more by improving our
schools or import more by recruiting talented immigrants. Surely, we need to do
both, and we need to start by breaking the deadlock in Congress over
immigration, so we can develop a much more strategic approach to attracting more
of the world’s creative risk-takers.”
Immigrants have always played a vital role in fueling our
entrepreneurial economic engine. Given our need for help in revving up
that engine right now, I wish we would take another look at our
immigration policy.
The primary reason that we see so many
immigrants pursue entrepreneurship is that they are opportunity focused –
surveys reveal that this is what drives many of them to leave for a
new country. I have to wonder how attractive the US will look in a few
years after our mad dash to socialism is fully in force.
When
we look within specific ethnic communities in the US, recent immigrants
out perform non-immigrants in economic achievements and have higher
rates of self-employment than native-born in these ethnic communities.
In
Internet-based ventures, immigrant entrepreneurs pursue more aggressive
strategy. One study found that 25.4% of engineering and technology
companies include at least one founder who was born outside of the US.
Here
are a few more quick facts:
- Immigrants represent 12.5 of
all business owners. - Immigrants are 30 percent more likely to
start a business than non-immigrants are. - Immigrant business
owners are concentrated in certain states, including California, New
York, New Jersey, Florida, and Hawaii. - Mexicans represent the
largest number of immigrant business owners, while Greeks, Koreans, and
Iranians have the highest ownership rates
In the 1900s we viewed immigrants as a
source of cheap labor. Our immigration policy — or lack thereof — has reflected
this.
To help create jobs and growth we should open our doors to
entrepreneurs from around the globe. Current policy makes it difficult
for entrepreneurs to enter the US legally. We
should be actively recruiting immigrants who want to come to our system
of free enterprise to start their businesses, just as we did to bring
in the scientists we needed in the 1950s and 1960s to help fight the
cold war.
The last great entrepreneurial economic boom was
created in large part by first generation Americans and sustained by a
large, but controlled, wave of immigration that helped to build an
economy that last through most of the 1900s.
In addition to a “green card” for
immigrants coming here to work, the US also needs another card (let’s
color it a “red card” for urgent) to support the flow of legitimate
entrepreneurs looking for the freedom this country offers to business
owners.
This is a really interesting post you’ve made. I followed the link to the original article written by Thomas L. Friedman, one of my favorite column writers. And I agree with him and you on this idea of the “immigrant entrepreneur.” Our lack of immigrant policy, and heightened level of unhealthy national fear in regards to more lenient immigration policies, is the thing that will certainly make the difference in jobs created by new business and no jobs created. The bailout for larger national companies was foolish and the wrong thing to do. I don’t agree with the bailouts for TNCs either. The power is in the people and that entrepreneurial mind that so many immigrants have. We must urge the government to remove caps that bar entry into the U.S. for these immigrants. It seems to be the only way for a successful climb out of this recession.