Something to consider.

A penny for your thoughts at The Economist:

FOR all its current economic woes, America remains a beacon of entrepreneurialism. Between 1996 and 2004 an average of 550,000 small businesses were created every month. One factor is a fairly open immigration policy. Vivek Wadhwa of Duke University notes that 52% of Silicon Valley start-ups were founded by immigrants, up from around a quarter ten years ago. But since 2001 the threat of terrorism and rising xenophobia has made immigration harder. Today more than 1m people are waiting to be granted legal status as permanent residents. Yet only 85,000 visas a year are allocated to the sort of skilled workers that might go on to found successful businesses of their own.

That's certainly in line with what I learned during my immigration course (and my stint at an immigration firm).  What so many folks fail to understand in this country is that immigrant workers -- particularly those with professional degrees -- can spur the economy where it might otherwise fall flat.  I can't tell you how many times I helped process the visa application of a scientist, computer engineer or other researcher upon whose shoulders the fates of a dozen American workers rested.  And it works that way because despite our delusions of grandeur, there are serious gaps in our home-grown workforce, and putting an immigrant professional in a job that we can't otherwise fill not only drives that business forward, it also creates jobs for Americans who can be hired on in other capacities to support that particular project.

You don't really think it's a coincidence that the world's economic powerhouse just happens to be a nation of immigrants, do you?

Comments

[vonnie]

no coincidence----and the earlier immigrants were the carpenters, bricklayers, & farmers who got this country started in the first place. they worked very hard and conditions were not like they are today. They worked with clumsy tools, and no electricity. But higher taxes on these small business today, will choke them, making it difficult for them to create jobs and grow their small companies.