Study: Immigrants Founded 51% of U.S. Billion-Dollar Startups
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).<p>I wrote a lengthy post about the effects of immigration recently, so here&#x27;s I&#x27;ll just focus on the issue of human capital.<p>Immigration creates a situation for rich countries to be able to draw from a much larger pool of talent than they otherwise would since they take talent from other countries.  This is a great situation for the host country, and devastates developing economies.  It&#x27;s basically colonialism all over, except instead of stealing physical commodities you&#x27;re stealing human capital.<p>Relevant article:  <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Human_capital_flight" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Human_capital_flight</a><p>And of course, there are negative effects in the host country, namely that there&#x27;s more competition for jobs, which can drive wages down, eliminate some jobs for natives altogether, etc...  The hope is that this effect is offset by the job creation effect, sometimes it is, sometimes it isn&#x27;t.  The US rust belt certainly doesn&#x27;t seem to be gaining much, but other areas are.<p>Anyhow, the whole point of this is that there&#x27;s well known pros and cons to immigration.  It&#x27;s not all pro, nor all con.  You need to ask exactly what you want the end-game to be - not just for the US, but for the world.  Human capital flight is the single biggest obstacle to development for the third world.  At the same time, it allows the west to gather all the brightest minds in the world to maintain its hegemony.  What&#x27;s more important - maintaining a dominant place in the world, or more equal development that doesn&#x27;t leave anyone behind? (I mean, I know the answer - we&#x27;re willing to destroy countries who go against western hegemony and simply absorb the migrants)