Now that we’re over the shock of Eric Cantor losing his House seat, we’re awakening to the realization that immigration reform, which he supported, won’t happen anytime soon. Money will continue to be wasted building a wall along our southern border. Rather than argue against those who cling to the opinion that immigration deprives jobs to US citizens, it’s easier to look at the facts.
Essayist, Jennifer Alsever has assembled a few which are impressive. (”Immigrants: America’s Job Creators,” Fortune, June 16, 2014 pg. 56.) 40% of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children. They include AT&T, Proctor & Gamble, Goldman Sachs, Pfizer, eBay, Google, Intel, Draft, Cigna and Khol’s. That tradition continues. Today, immigrants represent 12.9% of our population but 28% of start-up companies belong to them. I out of every 10 workers is employed by one of these businesses. That’s job growth, not job loss.
Immigrant entrepreneurs generate more that $775 billion in annual revenues and $100 billion in income. What’s more, these figures don’t include money derived from patents they’ve created which add billions more.
To grow the nation’s wealth, we ought to allow more immigration. But our restrictive policies prevent that from happening and foreign-borns are flocking to friendlier climes like China, Canada, Chile, and Australia.
Mayflower descendants may be quick to point out that building and maintaining our southern wall creates jobs and they may be right. But it’s a sad economy for a nation built by immigrants.
Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists. Franklin D. Roosevelt
Courtesy of www.dailykos.com
