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Study: Immigrants Founded 51% of U.S. Billion-Dollar Startups

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Re: Study: Immigrants Founded 51% of U.S. Billion-Dollar Startups

#21

Post by klipt »

ra1n85 wrote: post #10
staunch wrote: post #6

These are not the downtrodden masses. Immigrant does not mean poor. These are wealthy upper class people coming to the most logical place to create a successful technology company, because they can afford to do so. Poor people are usually stuck wherever they are. Investors in Silicon Valley care a lot about status and pedigree. A foreigner that can afford elite credentials is far more likely to get funding than a poo…

Are you sure H1B visas are relevant here? I would imagine EB-5 (investment) visas would be the more common route for upper class immigrant entrepreneurs coming to the US.

Elon Musk was an H1-B.

Re: Study: Immigrants Founded 51% of U.S. Billion-Dollar Startups

#22

Post by throwaway_xx9 »

tinco wrote: post #13

I'm not a U.S. citizen, and obviously one day I hope to be one of those U.S. Billion-Dollar startup founders and I would appreciate a VISA if it would help me achieve that, but there's something shaky with the premise here. Why does the U.S. need to depend on the ~80.000 odd first order immigrants per year to generate that amount of wealth. Couldn't the U.S. somehow draw those ambitious out of its current population?…

> Why does the U.S. need to depend on the ~80.000 odd first order immigrants per year to generate that amount of wealth.

The U.S. doesn't need them - Silicon Valley was created by Americans.

However, companies have tasted what mass immigration does to engineering salaries (stagnant since 2000) and labor mobility (almost none for H1B's) and are as addicted as heroin addicts.

Re: Study: Immigrants Founded 51% of U.S. Billion-Dollar Startups

#23

Post by Alex3917 »

staunch wrote: post #6

These are not the downtrodden masses. Immigrant does not mean poor. These are wealthy upper class people coming to the most logical place to create a successful technology company, because they can afford to do so. Poor people are usually stuck wherever they are. Investors in Silicon Valley care a lot about status and pedigree. A foreigner that can afford elite credentials is far more likely to get funding than a poo…

> These are not the downtrodden masses.

A lot of them are, if not downtrodden, at the least unable to earn a wage in the labor markets that is commensurate with their skill set.

Re: Study: Immigrants Founded 51% of U.S. Billion-Dollar Startups

#24

Post by falsestprophet »

"These 44 companies, the study says, are collectively valued at $168 billion and create an average of roughly 760 jobs per company."

Firstly, that's 33,000 jobs or about 0.0003% of the US workforce, so hardly the backbone of the economy.

Secondly, the H1B program, the subject of the article, is not an immigration program but a guest worker program. Generally, H1B workers leave the country and don't go on to start companies because the visa is limited to six years.

Re: Study: Immigrants Founded 51% of U.S. Billion-Dollar Startups

#25

Post by klipt »

shas3 wrote: post #19
Kenji wrote: post #8

According to the study, Mr. Bansal couldn’t leave his job to start a new company because it was unclear if he’d be able to keep his H-1B status. For 7 years. What a lock-in. And during that time, your employer can probably abuse you and freeze your salary, knowing exactly that your stay depends on that visa and you have a hard time leaving. Another point on immigrants. The US does it right: It causes brain-drain in o…

Funnily, due to country quotas that 7-9 yr wait on employment-based green cards is almost exclusively Indian problem.

Even for non-Indians it takes 2-3 years thanks to USCIS's general bureaucratic inefficiency.

Even a naturalized American who loses their certificate of naturalization and applies for a replacement copy has to wait 6 months for USCIS to issue a single piece of paper!

Re: Study: Immigrants Founded 51% of U.S. Billion-Dollar Startups

#26

Post by jdminhbg »

tinco wrote: post #13

I'm not a U.S. citizen, and obviously one day I hope to be one of those U.S. Billion-Dollar startup founders and I would appreciate a VISA if it would help me achieve that, but there's something shaky with the premise here. Why does the U.S. need to depend on the ~80.000 odd first order immigrants per year to generate that amount of wealth. Couldn't the U.S. somehow draw those ambitious out of its current population?…

> What if people could 'emigrate' from Detroit to California?

They can, there's no restriction of movement within the US.

Re: Study: Immigrants Founded 51% of U.S. Billion-Dollar Startups

#27

Post by xiaoma »

tinco wrote: post #13

I'm not a U.S. citizen, and obviously one day I hope to be one of those U.S. Billion-Dollar startup founders and I would appreciate a VISA if it would help me achieve that, but there's something shaky with the premise here. Why does the U.S. need to depend on the ~80.000 odd first order immigrants per year to generate that amount of wealth. Couldn't the U.S. somehow draw those ambitious out of its current population?…

When an Elon Musk or a Max Levchin shows up in your country itching to get to work, the best course of action is not to say, "couldn't we some how draw your kind of ambition out of a local?"

Far better is to give them visas let them build in your country rather than elsewhere.

Re: Study: Immigrants Founded 51% of U.S. Billion-Dollar Startups

#28

Post by hueving »

tinco wrote: post #13

I'm not a U.S. citizen, and obviously one day I hope to be one of those U.S. Billion-Dollar startup founders and I would appreciate a VISA if it would help me achieve that, but there's something shaky with the premise here. Why does the U.S. need to depend on the ~80.000 odd first order immigrants per year to generate that amount of wealth. Couldn't the U.S. somehow draw those ambitious out of its current population?…

It's the latter. These immigrants aren't poor uneducated people like you would encounter in an impoverished part of the US.

Re: Study: Immigrants Founded 51% of U.S. Billion-Dollar Startups

#29

Post by dominotw »

throwaway_xx9 wrote: post #22
tinco wrote: post #13

I'm not a U.S. citizen, and obviously one day I hope to be one of those U.S. Billion-Dollar startup founders and I would appreciate a VISA if it would help me achieve that, but there's something shaky with the premise here. Why does the U.S. need to depend on the ~80.000 odd first order immigrants per year to generate that amount of wealth. Couldn't the U.S. somehow draw those ambitious out of its current population?…

> Why does the U.S. need to depend on the ~80.000 odd first order immigrants per year to generate that amount of wealth. The U.S. doesn't need them - Silicon Valley was created by Americans. However, companies have tasted what mass immigration does to engineering salaries (stagnant since 2000) and labor mobility (almost none for H1B's) and are as addicted as heroin addicts.

>companies have tasted what mass immigration does to engineering salaries (stagnant since 2000)

Do you happen to know if there were studies done to link these two?

Re: Study: Immigrants Founded 51% of U.S. Billion-Dollar Startups

#30

Post by mc32 »

staunch wrote: post #6

These are not the downtrodden masses. Immigrant does not mean poor. These are wealthy upper class people coming to the most logical place to create a successful technology company, because they can afford to do so. Poor people are usually stuck wherever they are. Investors in Silicon Valley care a lot about status and pedigree. A foreigner that can afford elite credentials is far more likely to get funding than a poo…

First, educated and immigrants of means are a great addition to any economy they go to and a drain to the economies they leave. It's understandable why educated people might want to leave a country with few economic opportunities for their careers.

What I'm not so clear on is what attracts educated people of means to emigrate to the US [and AU and UK] from otherwise stable mature economies? We're better off for them, just a question as to what attracts them given they also have opportunities in their home countries.

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