Immigration “fertile” for reform, by the numbers
Pardon the pun, but it is only appropriate on the heels of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s remarks to the Faith and Freedom Coalition last Friday. According to The Hill, he said:
“Immigrants are more fertile, and they love families, and they have more intact families, and they bring a younger population. Immigrants create an engine of economic prosperity.”
There’s no doubt about that. Last year, the Small Business Administration commissioned a study of the impact of immigrant businesses and found that immigrants, on average, are more likely to start and own a business than non-immigrants. It found that 10.5 percent of the immigrant workforce owned a business, compared to just 9.3 percent of the non-immigrant workforce; it also found that about 620 out of 100,000 immigrants who do not currently own a business start one each month, while among non-immigrants the number is far lower, at only 280. (Fairlie 2012)
Furthermore, a year before that, it was reported that half of all venture capital start-ups had at least one immigrant founder. These are companies that have gone on to deliver impressive services and create new jobs here in the United States. Why should we be turning these people out? They’re exactly what we need to jump-start this sluggish economy.
Jeb Bush is exactly right when he says that immigrants “create an engine of economic prosperity.” After all, America is a nation built by immigrants, and look at the prosperity we’ve had for more than 200 years.
