Friday, November 17, 2006

Report: Immigrants Key to U.S. Competitiveness

A study by National Foundation of American Policy and Content First was released earlier this week, shows that immigrants founded 1 of every 4 public venture-backed U.S. company since 1990. According to the "American Made: The Impact of Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Professionals on U.S. Competitiveness," immigrant entrepreneurs have had "profound" impact on the creation of U.S. venture-backed firms here. According to the study, which was commissioned by the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), an estimated 47 percent of U.S. venture backed companies were founded by immigrants, citing such examples as Intel, Google, Yahoo!, Sun Microsystems and eBay. Of those immigrants, the most common countries of origin are India, Israel and Taiwan. The survey also found that two thirds of companies currently using H-1B visas believe that current immigration laws harm U.S. competitiveness.