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

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541–550 of 701 posts

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

#541
post #527
post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the chaos in the immigration system in the US that benefits you? The uncertainty and delays in the H1B process for employees? Australian US visas are a special case but I assume you are talking about employees. I'd be de privileging family unification visas and removing per country caps, primarily. Also eliminate h1b but as part of improving immigrant visas to accomplish the same mission but with benefits to…

> What is the chaos in the immigration system in the US that benefits you? Sorry I was not clear. The immigration system is absurd and it appears that all the plans are to make it worse for the US (All the announcements I've seen are of enormous benefit to Europe, Canada, Australia, Taiwan, Singapore et al). It's a major liability to trying to do business in the US. I mean the general chaos of life in the USA. Day to…

> you just have to spend so much time on useless shit that you don't deal with in other advanced economies

Just curious, can you provide some examples? (outside of healthcare, which is the well-known hell). Thanks!

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

#542
post #98

One of the basic premises of anti-immigrant policies is that you can somehow influence the ratio of "useful" vs "not-useful" immigrants. Apart from the idea of sorting people into useful and useless being inhumane, it also seems to be counterproductive. It looks like every kind of screening of immigrants will deter the more desirable ones, as far as that determination is possible on their arrival at all.

It wouldn't be hard to have an immigration system which is biased toward useful vs. not useful. The question is: where do you want to have the cutoff? I'm in favor of a solid border control regime (i.e. "build the wall"), combined with a transparent and straightforward points-based system for mainly immigrant visas. I'd eliminate the inherent racism in the current system (penalizing India and China vs. Equatorial Gui…

> I'm in favor of a solid border control regime (i.e. "build the wall"),

You seem like a pretty reasonable guy, so I'm curious: how do you justify the cost of building and maintaining the wall? And what are we getting in return? "Fewer mexicans immigrating illegally"?

For every dollar you pay in taxes, you want what % going to keeping illegal immigrants out? For me, I really couldn't care less, I'm fine with 0%. The idea that immigrants are more prone to crime or are destructive to the economy is wrong (statistically, if not morally).

What's the upside here?

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

#543
post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>No, I'm perfectly ok with what I wrote. Because HNers will fill in the blanks for you?

No, because there are no blanks, adding either of those words would change the meaning of the sentence in a way that I don't support.

You wrote:

Claims to the contrary the map is not the territory and a country is not a house.

The correction is saying this should be:

Despite claims to the contrary the map is not the territory and a country is not a house.

This does not seem to change the meaning, but rather makes the sentence read sensibly.

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

#544

Good study and all, but I think it misses the point of the current sentiment in the US. Regardless, yes, immigrants are more likely to found businesses than natives. Whether or not their businesses become billion dollar startups because of their efforts or venture capitalists is another question, but yes, they help the economy (As much as those who are a drag on it? Who knows). I wrote a lengthy post about the effect…

> Human capital flight is the single biggest obstacle to development for the third world. Citation needed.

Perfect example would be Zimbabwe

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

#545

One of the basic premises of anti-immigrant policies is that you can somehow influence the ratio of "useful" vs "not-useful" immigrants. Apart from the idea of sorting people into useful and useless being inhumane, it also seems to be counterproductive. It looks like every kind of screening of immigrants will deter the more desirable ones, as far as that determination is possible on their arrival at all.

[deleted]

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

#546
post #62

A bunch of folks on this forum love to bash the H1B visa. But that visa is not so new - this is how America has always filled her need for labor. Please take a few moments to read about "indentured servants" - immigrants from Britain and other parts of Europe who came to the US in 1800s. They were required to serve 5 to 7 years working in fields. After that they were given land and free to work for themselves. The H1…

> After that they are given the green card, which lets them work for any company.

I upvoted as this is a comparison a hadn't seen before. However, what I quoted is innacurate.

They can HOPE to get a GC in 10 years (for people from India), provided their current company agrees to sponsor it and goes through all the necessary hoops (the biggest of which is the PERM application). And it's not guaranteed, no matter how much work you've put in.

They are tied to the company, but they can switch companies if they find another sponsor. It requires a lot of effort and is far more difficult than just changing jobs, but it's possible.

L1 visas are tied to the company, however.

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

#547

One of the basic premises of anti-immigrant policies is that you can somehow influence the ratio of "useful" vs "not-useful" immigrants. Apart from the idea of sorting people into useful and useless being inhumane, it also seems to be counterproductive. It looks like every kind of screening of immigrants will deter the more desirable ones, as far as that determination is possible on their arrival at all.

> It looks like every kind of screening of immigrants will deter the more desirable ones

As someone who self-selected the name 'bayesian_horse', can you please cite the evidence you're basing this on?

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

#548
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wouldn't be hard to have an immigration system which is biased toward useful vs. not useful. The question is: where do you want to have the cutoff? I'm in favor of a solid border control regime (i.e. "build the wall"), combined with a transparent and straightforward points-based system for mainly immigrant visas. I'd eliminate the inherent racism in the current system (penalizing India and China vs. Equatorial Gui…

> I'm in favor of a solid border control regime (i.e. "build the wall"), You seem like a pretty reasonable guy, so I'm curious: how do you justify the cost of building and maintaining the wall? And what are we getting in return? "Fewer mexicans immigrating illegally"? For every dollar you pay in taxes, you want what % going to keeping illegal immigrants out? For me, I really couldn't care less, I'm fine with 0%. The…

It's statistically factual, at least in the USA, that illegal immigrants are more prone to crime, and that immigrant households are more likely to use welfare/EBT/etc. than native households.

That is, illegals commit more crimes and are less economically productive vs. the existing population.

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

#549
All pretension aside, you cannot presume to publicly forment xenophobic sentiments against brown people, implying that they are all kinds of evil, while at the same time presuming to make yourself attractive to highly-skilled tech workers from all around the world.

If you embolden racists, they will start harassing and attacking all kinds of non-white people and that includes, legal recidents from all around the world because frankly racists don't care.

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

#550
post #468

None from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Sudan or Yemen.

https://www.quora.com/Who-are-the-most-successful-entreprene... Many do come from Iran

None of the founders (should read co-founders) of billion-dollar companies in the study came from Iran. There's a table in the report.
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