Immigration

Zoltan Acs introduces his newest paper (cauthored with David Hart and Spencer Tracy), which quantifies the role of immigratis in high-tech entrepreneurship in the United States. Over at the Creative Class blog, Zoltan writes:

Only about three percent of the founders of high-impact, high-tech companies are foreigners (60 out of 2034). 97 percent are U.S. citizens, and specifically 87 percent are U.S.-born, while the other 10 percent are naturalized U.S. citizens. Furthermore, most foreign-born founders lived in the US for decades. These founders are statistically very similar to the average U.S. population in terms of birth and immigration status.

An interesting but unanswered aspect of the study is how these high-tech immigrants (many not new), part of the international creative class, help integrate U.S. business in a post-American world? Do they as some have claimed strengthen America in a post-American world, or is it a non-issue? If they strengthen our connection to the rest of the world through “brain circulation” is the flight of the creative class not a major public policy issue?

Via @auerswald, naturally. The full report: High-Tech Immigrant Entrepreneurship in the United States (pdf). A shorter executive summary is also available.