Immigrant Entrepreneurs Get Things Done

In late December 1996, I stood outside of my grandparents’ home in Gomel, Belarus for the last time. It was so cold that the engine in our van had completely frozen, and we did everything to make sure we didn’t miss our flight to the United States. We spoke no English, knowing nothing of the cultural divides and hate that we would soon face.

We should have been more familiar. My family and I immigrated under a refugee status after the government threatened my mother numerous times. A few weeks before we left for the US, we found the man who had helped with our visa bleeding out in our apartment hallway. His stabbing was a message.

So many immigrants leave their homes under duress. No one chooses to uproot their family, to leave their whole community or give up their college degrees at 43 years old. Like many before her and even more since, my mom had no choice.

Why am I telling you this?

With my team at KRNLS, I talk about two things over and over again; entrepreneurship and economic development. In my head, these ambitions are inextricably connected. As I’ve worked with cities and rural communities alike, I can’t but notice the central role immigrants play in my own line of work. You might be saying, of course you made that observation, you too are an immigrant. Bias noted.

But in the world of entrepreneurship and economic development, it is impossible to avoid the thousands of new businesses and new products developed almost exclusively by people — immigrants — who had no other choice.

Restriction Begets Innovation

And it turns out, this restriction of choice immigrants experience is a pretty strong motivation to succeed in a new economy. According to Pew Research, there are currently over 40 million people living in the US that are foreigh born. There are representatives from almost every country in the world with nearly a million more arriving each year. Since the establishment of the refugee program in 1980, over 3 millions refugees have been resettled across the US.

Of those 40 million, more than half currently work, supporting nearly every facet of the American economy. According to the nonpartisan research group New American Economy, households led by immigrants earned $1.5 trillion in total income, contributing $405 billion in tax revenue to federal, state, and local governments.

In fact, one in every five entrepreneurs in this country are immigrants, and immigrant-owned businesses employed almost 8 million American workers in 2017. That’s $1.3 trillion in sales, the equivalent of 11 years worth of Amazon sales.

To quote Hamilton, “Immigrants, we get the job done.”

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, immigrants also tend to be more conservative about spending, and families are more likely to pass down their business from generation to generation, thus making these enterprises more stable contributors to their communities and the economy. A 2018 study from the National Foundation for American Policy found that 55% of the country’s startups evaluated at $1 billion or more (50 of 91) had at least one immigrant founder.

New People, New Economy

When immigrants combine their $1.1 trillion in spending power, they tend to reinvest where they’ve settled. Between 2016 and 2017, immigrant homeowners grew to 9.5 million. While there are still a large number of undocumented or illegal immigrants (23%), it should be noted that DACA-eligible residents earned $23.4 billion in total income in 2017 alone, paying $2.2 billion in federal taxes and almost $1.8 billion in state and local taxes. And, not all immigrants are required to become US citizens while the US Citizenship and Immigration Service receives over 800,000 naturalization applications every year.

The growth and prosperity of our communities rely on new ideas, new people, and a diversity of cultures. Numbers do not lie. Immigrants are starting new companies and hiring American workers. Immigrants are growing their towns and paying taxes. Immigrants are creating futures for their children who will go to college and design technologies that you have never even dreamed of.

Since starting my own company three years ago, I can’t help but think of all the people that paved the way for my success. My mom gave up her masters degree to become a nail technician at a small salon in Norfolk, Virginia. My dad gave up his electrical engineering degree to work in maintenance in Virginia Beach. I do not take these sacrifices lightly. Their sacrifices inspire my own entrepreneurial ambitions and my own commitment to enabling stronger local communities and economies where more people have the opportunity to thrive.

As I enter a new year, I hope that my work opens doors for the same incredible families that have allowed me to sit here, in my own home, and write a thought leadership piece about the pivotal role that immigrants play in US economic development. The proof is in the privilege.