Too Much Globalization, Or Not Enough?

Immigrants contributed to more than 25 percent of new engineering and technology start-up firms in the US between 1995 and 2005, according to a study from Duke University’s Master of Engineering Management Program and the School of Information, University of California, Berkeley. Companies started by immigrants produced $52 billion in sales and employed 450,000 in 2005. Notably, firms with immigrant founders are concentrated in California, New Jersey, Georgia and Massachusetts and are less common in Washington, North Carolina, Texas and Ohio. Andrew Leonard of “Salon” questions whether the fear of globalization coming from states like Ohio, expressed during recent elections, might be misplaced. Admitting the complexity of globalization, Leonard also questions whether states like Ohio suffer the consequences of globalization, such as wage pressure, while missing out on the contributions of vibrant immigrant communities and the jobs they create.“Immigrants have become a significant driving force in the creation of new businesses and intellectual property in the US,” conclude the study’s authors. – YaleGlobal