Small Business Labs

The World's Best Places to Be Immigrants

Foreign Policy Magazine has a list of the best places in the world to be an immigrant.  Their list is:

• Ireland, where 14% of population are immigrants (meaning foreign born)
• Spain, where 11% of the population are immigrants
• Canada, where 19% of the the population are immigrants
• Israel, where 40% of the population are immigrants
• New Zealand, where 16% of the population are immigrants

The U.S. is not on the list, but about 12% of the U.S. population is foreign born.

A primary reason these countries are attractive to immigrants is economic opportunity and/or the need for for labor.  Canada's finance minister, for example, says that "population and labor shortages are Canada’s most pressing economic challenges."  And New Zealand uses a point system to encourage immigrants with in-demand job skills. 

Ireland is quite interesting given its history as a source of immigrants for other countries.  The "celtic tiger" economy of the last two decades has made Ireland very attractive to immigrants.

Our most recent forecast report has a section on the role immigrant entrepreneurs play in increasing cross border trade.  Not surprisingly, all the coutries listed in this article are strong in cross border trade. 

Buying a Green Card

The Wall Street Journal (paid subscription required) has an article on the US Government's EB-5 visa program, which offers foreign nationals a provisional green card in exchange for $500,000 investment in a distressed area.  The program is designed to bring job creating immigrants and capital to the US.

The program is authorized to grant up to 10,000 visas per year, but for a variety of reasons only about 100 per year have been granted over the last few years. However, interest is picking up as developers and promoters create investment opportunities that fit this program.

Monster.com has a good description of the program.

Foreign Born as a % of the US Workforce

According to the BLS foreign born workers comprise about 15% of the US labor force and about 47% of the net growth of the US labor force between 2000 and 2006.

While I have not seen specific data on this, I think it is safe to assume a high percentage of foreign born workers are employed by small businesses.  Several studies also indicate that foreign born Americans start businesses at a 20-40% higher rate than native born. 

Clearly foreign born workers and entrepreneurs are a key economic resource for the US and this should be strongly considered in our ongoing immigration debates.

MSN on Successful Immigrant Entrepreneurs

MSN has an article called "The 6 Secrets of Successful Entrepreneurs."  It features several immigrant entrepreneurs and how they became successful in the US.  The case studies in the article show a consistent pattern of looking for opportunities, taking a chance, hard work and financial prudence. 

The article talks about how immigrants tap social networks to help them.  Key quote:

"Immigrants without access to local language, capital or cultural acumen turn to networks of their countrymen for training, financing, advice and customers."

Social networks are extremely important to immigrant entrepreneurs.  Also, the growth of the Internet and easier and cheaper communications and travel gives immigrant entrepreneurs better access to their home country social networks.  This improved access is leading to increasing cross border trade opportunities as immigrant entrepreneurs connect with their home country.

Cross Border Online Social Networks

Social networks are the craze these days.  Myspace, Facebook and thousands of start-ups are trying to bring together online communities.  Mashable, a blog that covers social networking, reports on a US/Mexico cross border social community called TierraNatal.  The goal of TierraNatal is to connect friends and family located in the US and Mexico.  From Mashable:

"The network is rather location-based, and really sticks to its theme of connecting people based on geography and culture. Your profile lets you create a personal network comprised of people and towns. Each town in Mexico can be represented in TierraNatal ...."

Immigrant entrepreneurs often have business links back to their home country.  Cross border online social networks could increase these links and result in more cross border small business trade.  While too early to see if small businesses take advantage of a social network site like TierraNatal, it will be interesting to watch.

Kauffman Foundation Report On Entrepreneurial Activity

The Kaufman Foundation recently released their annual report on US entrepreneurial activity.  This report takes a very comprehensive look at new small business formation - including small business formation rates by demographic group as well as by state and major MSAs.  We consider this report and work to one of the key data sources on entrepreneurial activity in the US, and we refer to it often.

The report shows that immigrant small business formation rates continue to grow, and continue to be substantially higher than for native born americans.  It also shows that Asians and Latinos continue to form small businesses at a faster rate than average.  For more details on the trends related to the increasing diversity in US entrepreneurial activity, see our recent forecast report that focused on the changing face of entrepreneurship.

The USA Today Small Business Blog has a nice summary of the report if you are interested but don't want to download and wade through the PDF.