Immigrant entrepreneurs
- Immigrant entrepreneurs founded nearly 20% of all Fortune 500 companies. Together, those companies employ 3.7 million workers and have generated $1.7 trillion in annual revenue. (Immigrant Learning Center, Public Education Institute, Immigrant Entrepreneurs: Creating Jobs and Strengthening the Economy, 2012)
- In one-quarter (25.3%) of technology and engineering companies started in the U.S. from 1995 to 2005, at least one key founder was foreign-born. Nationwide, these immigrant-founded companies produced $52 billion in sales and employed 450,000 workers in 2005. (America’s New Immigrant Entrepreneurs, Duke University and University of California, 2007)
- Immigrant entrepreneurs tend to move to cosmopolitan technology centers. The regions with the largest immigrant population also tend to have the greatest number of technology startups. On average, 31% of the engineering and technology companies founded from 1995 to 2005 in the 11 technology centers that were surveyed had an immigrant as a key founder. This compares to the national average of 25.3%. (Education, Entrepreneurship, and Immigration: America’s New Immigrant Entrepreneurs, Part II, Duke University, University of California, Kauffman Foundation, 2007)
- Technology centers with a greater concentration of immigrant entrepreneurs in their state averages: Silicon Valley (52.4%), New York City (43.8%), and Chicago (35.8%). (Education, Entrepreneurship, and Immigration: America’s New Immigrant Entrepreneurs, Part II, Duke University, University of California, Kauffman Foundation, 2007)
- More than half of the foreign-born founders of U.S. technology and engineering companies came to the United States to study, with only 1.6% entering the country with the sole purpose of entrepreneurship. They typically founded companies after working and living in the United States for an average of 13 years. (Education, Entrepreneurship, and Immigration: America’s New Immigrant Entrepreneurs, Part II, Duke University, University of California, Kauffman Foundation, 2007)
- In New York City, almost half of all self-employed workers are immigrants, although immigrants make up just over a third of the city’s population. In Los Angeles, 22 of the fastest growing companies in 2005 were owned by immigrants. (A World of Opportunity, Center for an Urban Future, 2007, as cited in Opening the Door to the American Dream: Higher Education Access and Success for Immigrants, Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2007)