Study: Immigrants and their kids founded 45% of U.S. Fortune 500 companies

Definitely some selection bias. Many wealthy people in the US are immigrants. Also, many wealthy people probably choose to immigrate to the US to start their business because of lower barriers to entry.

EDIT: Also, if this [1] is correct, 13.7% of people in the US are immigrants. So how many people are immigrants OR first-gen? And since ANY of the founders can be immigrants/first-gen, more founders means higher likelihood that it fits this criteria.

[1]https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/frequently-requested...

Re: Study: Immigrants and their kids founded 45% of U.S. Fortune 500 companies

#9

Post by bruceb » Mon, Jul 22, 2019, 2:20 PM UTC

Immigrants is such a broad term its nearly meaningless.

From the article: "The share of the most successful and globally-recognized U.S. companies that have immigrant founders is growing, according to NAE's Hanna Siegel and Andrew Lim, while the Trump administration has tried to make it more difficult for immigrants to come to the U.S., often claiming that they take American jobs and lower wages."

No mention what type of immigrant founded these companies (and by founded, it could mean they were one of a couple cofounders) Most likely they were already highly educated or pursing an advanced degree in the US.

When you go to the source material from New American Economy think tank, they don't have any links to explain how they created this report, nothing about methodology. Its just hey believe us.

Re: Study: Immigrants and their kids founded 45% of U.S. Fortune 500 companies

#10

Post by whichimmigrants » Mon, Jul 22, 2019, 2:21 PM UTC

These studies of immigrant company founders are always accidentally white supremacist. Don’t look too closely at where these immigrants came from or you will have to retract.