WASHINGTON — The United States is a nation of immigrants bound together by the American ideals of individual freedom and responsibility and driven by the limitless opportunities of free enterprise.
These powerful draws of freedom and opportunity have brought the world’s best and brightest to our shores for generations.
Today, as we face a sluggish economic recovery and persistently high unemployment, immigrants can strengthen our efforts to grow the economy, create jobs and keep America competitive. But to truly leverage the talent, energy, ideas and hard work of immigrants, we must adopt rational reforms to our immigration system. What’s at stake if we don’t? Innovation, growth and jobs.
According to the Partnership for a New American Economy, immigrant entrepreneurs are responsible for 18 percent of all Fortune 500 companies, including tech and business giants Google, Yahoo, Big Lots and BJ’s Wholesale Club.
Combined, those enterprises pump $1.7 trillion in annual revenue into our economy and employ 3.7 million workers around the world.
Immigrant-owned small businesses can also make a big impact. As highlighted in the U.S. Chamber’s recent report, “Immigrant Entrepreneurs: Creating Jobs and Strengthening the Economy,” immigrants are not solely job creators in the high-tech sector. They are helping rejuvenate local communities and creating employment opportunities for their neighbors. And they are tapping into high-growth sectors and starting businesses in food manufacturing, transportation, construction, money transfer and travel services and tourism.
These growth businesses put Americans to work at home and often connect our markets with customers outside of the United States.
America’s top-notch colleges and research institutions also help draw the world’s talent. More than half of the master’s and doctoral students studying the natural sciences and engineering disciplines at U.S. colleges and universities are foreign born. But after we educate these scientists and engineers in our institutions, U.S. immigration laws discourage them from remaining here.
We should abandon this mindless practice. Instead, we should allow the talented individuals we already attract to stay and work in the United States if employers want to hire them. Doing so would help draw global investment, create and retain jobs for our workers and grow our economy.
Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce projects that by 2018 there will be 2.8 million job openings in technology-related careers at all levels.
Of those jobs, 1.2 million will be new and 1.6 million will be replacements for retirees — and nearly 800,000 of them will require an advanced degree. However, by 2018, the United States will have produced only about 400,000 American STEM graduates with a master’s degree or a doctorate.
It boils down to this: If we’re going to continue to attract and retain the world’s most creative entrepreneurs who want to better their lives and add to our economy, we’ve got to adopt a rational immigration policy that harnesses the energy and innovation of enterprising foreigners.
We’ve got to cut the red tape that holds back enterprising immigrants and ensure that we welcome job creators of every size and in every sector. It’s also critical that we enable high-skilled immigrants and foreign students to invest their talent in our knowledge economy.
If we don’t adopt these rational reforms, we’ll wind up doing something irrational — sending innovation to our competitors at the expense of our own economic growth and job creation.
• Donohue is the president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Comments (20)
Add commentKind of interesting...
...to hear this coming from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, an arm of the republican party. But it's all political positioning.
Obama's been saying the same since he came in, but all of his efforts to reform immigration have been stymied by the republican House. Because of this, Obama has had a massive lead with Latinos in swing states, probably enough to determine the election.
Soon you'll hear Romney and other republicans mouthing the same thing, using this CoC piece as cover, in the hopes of siphoning off some of the Latino vote. With these republicans it's not about what's best for America, it's about winning political power.
Immigrant entrepreneurs...
...create jobs for their immigrant family members who come subsequently and work for peanuts making it hard for competition to make it while paying only minimum wage to legal citizens. That is certainly bright!
Needs votes:
Skippy boy must be hurting; he is pulling out all his cards so early in the game. Now I guess its catch and release for our border agents on the southern border. Needs all the votes he can get I guess.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/06/15/obama-administration-to-offer...
Someone didn't read the
Someone didn't read the article he linked to. Or he did and chose to lie about what it said.
That would be you, Milspec.
What is there to lose
Illegal immigrants are already in our schools, colleges, workforce, driving our highways,receiving health benefits, having children here, the list goes on. At least we can have them registered and paying taxes. Also, and I know this will never fly, but the registration fee should be several thousand dollars and any relative brought in needs to be "sponsored" by them (supported by them).
Donohue has always been for
Donohue has always been for open borders, which I can't understand. He must be the same kind of Republican as Juan McCain!
What about the tens of millions of unemployed or underemployed American citizens finding some work first?
Here's a better idea - until we get this economy straightened out - stop most all of the immigration.
Obama pulled another fast one this morning with his lite DREAM Act. It's probably highly illegal and once again he'll pay in the polls or hopefully with more harsh action.
What the heLL does he think he is anyway - a dictator...sheeeesh.
Well let’s see here PP that
Well let’s see here PP that would be 5 + to 0 + so someone must understand where I was coming from.
Except the article--even with
Except the article--even with the Fox News spin--clearly states that illegals who were brought here AS CHILDREN would not be deported. No mention of "catch and release" at the border.
"The executive order will apply to illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. before they were 16 and are younger than 30. They also must have no criminal record, have been in the country for at least five continuous years, have graduated from a U.S. high school or have earned a GED, or served in the military."
Oops. Someone done told a lie. Or is it not a lie if a bunch of his wingnut buddies pat him on the back and tell him it's all right? It's not all right. You lied and should be ashamed.
George Costanza
says "it's not a lie if you believe it."
So won't be deported if
So won't be deported if you're here illegally and you've served in our military. If you're here illegally, how can you serve in the military? What I find particularly entertaining is listening to the current administration going on and on about how this isn't immunity or amnesty. How is it NOT immunity or amnesty?
Spiff, you must have been in
Spiff, you must have been in the Oval Office prior to this announcement.
Yes, akbrdguru, it makes
Yes, akbrdguru, it makes perfect sense to deport people who, for all intents and purposes, have no country of their own. It's interesting how pervasive victim-blaming is in our society--if you honestly think an illegal immigrant is at fault because they came over here when they were a child, you have no sense of morality or reason.
Tough one....
akbrdguru has a point, I've wondered how an illegal gets into the military as well.
On the other hand, is it fair to punish someone brought here as a 2-year old?
I do agree that we should stop issuing new visas and green cards for a bit, and that we need to seal the southern border.
Then we figure out what to do with folks who are already here. It is true, and I have seen this first hand, that immigrants are taking jobs Americans would do - like working in restaurants waiting or bussing tables, driving trucks, and working in hotels.
Are illegal immigrants TAKING
Are illegal immigrants TAKING our jobs, or are our companies GIVING AWAY our jobs? Seems to me that the business has the final say in who gets hired and who doesn't.
"lighten up, francis"
@akbrdguru - just trying to add a little levity.
Looks like the Cato Institute would support Obama's move:
"Members of Congress should not reject market-oriented immigration reform because of misguided fears about "importing poverty." Based on recent experience, a policy that allows more low-skilled workers to enter the United States legally would not necessarily expand the number of people living in poverty or the number of low-skilled households demanding government services. It would not impose significant costs on American society in the form of welfare spending or crime abatement.
As Cato research has shown elsewhere, strong, positive arguments remain for pursuing a policy of expanding legal immigration for low-skilled workers. Comprehensive immigration reform that included a robust temporary worker program would boost economic output and create new middleclass job opportunities for native-born Americans. It would reduce the inflow of illegal workers across the border, allowing enforcement resources to be redeployed more effectively to interdict terrorists and real criminals. It would restore the rule of law to U.S. immigration policy, while reducing calls for enforcement measures such as a national ID card or a centralized employment verification system, which compromise the freedom and civil liberties of American citizens.17
Along with those major benefits, immigration reform would enhance the incentives for native-born Americans up and down the income ladder to acquire the education and skills they need to prosper in a dynamic economy." http://www.cato.org/publications/free-trade-bulletin/immigrants-move-ame...
When you search for impacts of illegal immigration on the economy, you get a little bit more complex picture than is presented by the author above or the posters here - surprise, surprise.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/10/07/alabamas-disgraceful-imm...
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/06/why-immigrants-are-g...
"The irony is that for all the overexcited debate, the net effect of immigration is minimal (about a one tenth of 1 percent gain in gross domestic product, according to Hanson). Even for those most acutely affected—say, low-skilled workers, or California residents—the impact isn’t all that dramatic. “The shrill voices have tended to dominate our perceptions,” says Daniel Tichenor, a political science professor at the University of Oregon. “But when all those factors are put together and the economists crunch the numbers, it ends up being a net positive, but a small one.” Too bad most people don’t realize it." http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/05/14/why-americans-think-wro...
Even some libertarians agree - http://libertarianreview.us/2012/04/21/illegal-immigrants-good-for-econo...
Victim blaming? See, now
Victim blaming? See, now you're just loony. Who is the victim? I'm sure you mean the American tax-paying citizen, right? You can't possibly be referring to somebody who has broken our laws a victim. I'm not saying we need to throw them all in jail and toss the key away. I'm not completely heartless. I encourage anybody that wants to experience the freedoms we have as American citizens to come here. Visit as long as they want. This is a great place! But if you cross the boarder, you had better be doing it legally. If a child is here illegally, chances are they came with their parents who also came here illegally. I'm sure you wouldn't want to split the family apart. So we'll buy the bus ticket back to the boarder and they can start the process to get back legally. I'd even be in favor of not charging them with a crime the first time.
Don't call me
Don't call me Francis......and don't touch my stuff. Anybody calls me Francis...anybody touches mystuff...
So akbrdguru, you think
So akbrdguru, you think children who were BROUGHT here illegally are not victims, but criminals? I can see why you'd think that. After all, it's not like these now-grown adults are American in culture and language, will probably be denied the benefits of our society, or have no "home" to go back to since the U.S. is where they grew up.
My god you people are harpies. When was the last time you drove over the speed limit, failed to stop at a stop sign or yield to someone with right-of-way? Ever smoke pot? Drink underage or drive while intoxicated? Litter? If so, then kindly STFU and sit in the corner--you have no right to blather on about other people's crimes which have absolutely no impact on you when you have committed crimes that could have possibly resulted in direct harm to others. Bunch of a little crybabies looking to scapegoat anyone but yourselves for our country's problems, you are.
p, careful, don't hurt
p, careful, don't hurt yourself! No one put you in charge of taking care of the illegals. You don't need to feel so guilty. Let's figure this out legally and rationally.
Discuss the fairness issue for us. Like all the immigrants that have waited in line for years to get to America and now they're being trumped by Obama. That's not fair...
And what's up with this special tuition rate for illegals to attend our taxpayer funded universities in some states? That's not fair either - can I get a special rate to go to a university in California, even though I don't live there? And how exactly does one prove that they are here illegally? That's just funny.
How do they get a job once they've gotten this special rate education when they have no social security number?
What BO did today was nothing more than pandering for votes. He's getting desperate - it's not looking good for his re-election.
ah yes
Remember that news story about the dude who got caught selling heroin? Reminder that his parents immigrated illegally to this country when he was just a young child.
I, too, believe that every child whose parents brought him/her to this country illegally should receive a work permit.