Immigrants Are Driving Billion-Dollar Startups, Study Finds

U.S. Republicans would have you believe that immigrants are bleeding the economy dry.

But these billion-dollar startup founders would beg to differ.

SpaceX’s Elon Musk, Zenefits’ Laks Srini, Uber’s Garrett Camp, and Palantir’s Peter Thiel are all immigrants.

Research from the National Foundation for American Policy reveals that immigrants have been crucial in the foundation of more than half of the 87 U.S. startups with valuations at over a billion dollars.

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According to the study, more than 51 percent of the “unicorn startups” valued at least at a billion dollars, had one or more immigrant founder.

Together, those companies are worth a net US$168 billion.

India was at the top of the list, scoring 14 of the billion-dollar startups founders.

Canada and the United Kingdom came in joint-second.

The foreign-born entrepreneurs also create an average of 760 U.S.-based jobs per company, the study says.

It’s not surprising then that Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg is pushing to make its easier for workers to be given visas to be able to work in the tech industry.