By Stephen DeAngelis
Annually, on 21 August, people around the world celebrate World Entrepreneurs' Day “to commemorate the spirit and hard work behind building start-ups that are on their way to bring the next big idea to the front.”[1] Entrepreneurship is one activity that truly deserves celebrating. Robert Krol, an emeritus professor of economics at California State University Northridge, explains, “Economic growth in advanced economies is driven primarily by innovations that improve productivity. Entrepreneurs and researchers, who are motivated by economic incentives, generate new ideas that result in either new or expanded businesses. The resulting expansion of businesses generates new and better products and services. Entrepreneurs also change the way production is organized because they improve efficiency that lowers prices for consumers. Such actions produce economic growth, which manifests itself by increasing product variety, jobs, and wages. As a result, economic well-being increases.”[2]
America currently finds itself at an existential crossroads when it comes to entrepreneurship. America has for decades attracted the world’s greatest minds and some of its most ambitious people to its shores. These individuals have helped make America the world’s economic powerhouse and an innovation leader. A study published in 2022 concluded, “Immigrants act more as ‘job creators’ than ‘job takers’ and play outsized roles in US high-growth entrepreneurship.”[3] According to the study, “Immigrants start firms at higher rates than native-born individuals in several countries, with recent evidence suggesting that approximately 25% of recent start-ups in the U.S. are founded by immigrants.”
That study supports a 2016 study by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation which concluded, “While immigration is often subject to contentious political debate, there is a little debate about the economic contributions of immigrant entrepreneurs. Immigrants are twice as likely to become entrepreneurs as native-born Americans. Immigrant entrepreneurs have begun and lead some of the world’s most successful and innovative companies. The risk-taking that defines an immigrant’s experience in starting anew in a new country often continues to benefit immigrant entrepreneurs as they channel a healthy appetite for risk in a way that leads to new business ideas.”[4]
Today, however, many of the immigrants who could bolster America’s economy are beating a path to other countries that are more welcoming to immigrants. Foreign students have also been a promising source of entrepreneurs over the years. A study conducted by three economics professors, Michel Beine, Giovanni Peri, and Morgan Raux, found, “Over half of all innovative US entrepreneurs (54% of the Fortune 500, according to Forbes) hold a US graduate degree, suggesting that US universities are important generators of innovation.”[5] Shakked Noy, an economics PhD student at MIT, explains, “Future entrepreneurs often enter the US by attending a US university, but restrictive visa policies prevent many aspiring entrepreneurs from founding a firm after graduation.”[6] Currently, foreign students are being actively discouraged from coming to America for their education. Neither of these situations bode well for America’s economic future.
Beine, Peri, and Raux point out, “From Levi Strauss & Co. — a company founded by a German immigrant whose name became synonymous with blue jeans in the 20th century — to Google, Amazon, and Uber, many of the most recognizable companies in the US were created by immigrants or children of immigrants who achieved the American Dream through successful entrepreneurship and innovation. New firms are key drivers of technological innovation, which is one of the main engines of growth for the US economy. New firms and startups bring substantial, high-potential innovations to market. In the process, they contribute to employment, real output, and productivity growth in the US. They also tend to hire high-ability workers and frequently pay higher wages than other firms. The prominent role US universities play in fostering innovation is no coincidence. The US has long been home to the best universities in the world: most rankings show that US universities have represented the lion’s share of the top 10, 50, and 100 universities in the world for decades.” How serious is the problem? Frances Arnold, a 2018 Nobel Prize winner and chemical engineering professor at the California Institute of Technology, states, “At stake today is our position as a worldwide beacon for brilliant minds.”[7]
Another reason the American economy has remained strong and healthy is that the country’s workforce has remained relatively young and vibrant. Immigration has played a significant role in keeping it that way. In the future, aging countries looking to maintain a youthful, vibrant workforce could actively seek to attract immigrants. Journalist Carlos Lozada explains, “We often think of immigrants mainly as supplicants — as one begging to get in rather than being induced or incentivized to come by the host country. … Some of the countries that are closing themselves off from immigration are the ones that have the most need of it and actually we’re starting to face a world where the scarcest resource is going to be people, and so that means that countries end up competing for migrants, rather than having immigrants be supplicants begging to get in.”[8]
Concluding Thoughts
Stuart Anderson, Executive Director of the National Foundation for American Policy, believes both the government and public should rethink current immigration policies based on a bounty of research. He writes, “The findings should interest policymakers and Americans who value expanded employment opportunities, particularly in cutting-edge fields. The research highlights the advantages of immigration overlooked in the current political battles over U.S. border policies.”[9] The Editorial Board at The Wall Street Journal believes the time is right to pass meaningful immigration legislation. They write, “Only Nixon could go to China, and maybe only Trump can finally get a polarized Congress to pass real immigration reform. Who knows whether he will try, but the opportunity is there, as public opinion shifts in response to the President’s border success and mass deportation efforts.”[9] America’s economic future has much to gain by encouraging the world’s best and brightest people to come here and start businesses. World Entrepreneurs' Day encourages individuals to pursue their own business aspirations — and I still believe there’s no better place than the United States to do so.
Footnotes
[1] Staff, “World Entrepreneur Day 2024: Lessons Learnt By Start-up Founders,” Entrepreneur, 21 August 2024.
[2] Robert Krol, “Effects of Immigration on Entrepreneurship and Innovation,” Cato Institute, Fall 2021.
[3] Pierre Azoulay, Benjamin F. Jones, J. Daniel Kim, Javier Miranda, “Immigration and Entrepreneurship in the United States,” American Economic Review: Insights,” March 2022.
[4] Staff, “Kauffman Compilation: Research on Immigration and Entrepreneurship,” Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, October 2016.
[5] Michel Beine, Giovanni Peri, and Morgan Raux, “International graduate students and US startup creation,” Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), 4 February 2025.
[6] Shakked Noy, “Immigrant Entrepreneurship in the US,” The Bulletin on Entrepreneurship, 21 October 2024.
[7] Christopher Mims, “America’s Brain Drain Could Become the World’s Brain Gain,” The Wall Street Journal, 11 July 2025.
[8] Lydia Polgreen and Carlos Lozada, “The World’s Best and Brightest Are Moving, but Not to America,” The New York Times, 9 July 2025.
[9] Stuart Anderson, “Immigrant Entrepreneurs Bring Jobs And Innovation, New Research Shows,” Forbes, 23 May 2024.
[10] Editorial Board, “Trump’s Immigration Reform Opportunity,” The Wall Street Journal, 14 July 2025.
