University of Illinois:: The Entrepreneurial Power of Immigration

Where do entrepreneurs come from?

Governments spend billions of dollars attempting to answer that question. Economic development agencies create incentive programs. Universities launch entrepreneurship centers. Policymakers debate tax structures, regulations and workforce development strategies designed to encourage innovation and business creation.

Underlying all of these efforts is a common assumption::

Entrepreneurship can be cultivated through systems and institutions.

While true, our work with the University of Illinois suggested that another factor may be even more powerful.

Migration…

Specifically, the movement of people from less open societies to more open ones.

The project began with a deceptively simple question::

If America wanted to dramatically increase entrepreneurship, where should it invest?

Rather than focusing immediately on policy prescriptions, GREEN::HOUSE and our collaborators explored the characteristics commonly associated with entrepreneurial behavior.

Risk tolerance.

Adaptability.

Resourcefulness.

Resilience.

Optimism.

The willingness to leave behind certainty in pursuit of opportunity.

Again and again, one population consistently embodied these traits.

Immigrants.

Particularly those who choose to leave familiar environments, cultures and support systems in search of greater opportunity elsewhere.

The decision to migrate is itself an entrepreneurial act.

It requires individuals to navigate uncertainty, absorb risk, adapt to unfamiliar systems and imagine a future that does not yet exist.

In many ways, these are the very qualities that successful founders, innovators and changemakers rely upon throughout their careers.

As part of the project, we engaged economists, scholars and policy experts to better understand the relationship between immigration and entrepreneurial activity.

Among them was University of Chicago professor Pablo Montagnes, who summarized the insight succinctly::

"If there were some other measure—if we knew that left-handed people were more entrepreneurial—then I would say we should hire more left-handed people or let more left-handed people into the country. But we don't have a measure like that. The measure we do have is a desire to take a risk and move to the United States for a particular reason."

He continued::

"Often the immigration debate is about people taking jobs from Americans. But entrepreneurship is about creating new jobs and new things that would not exist otherwise."

The research challenged conventional thinking about economic development.

Rather than viewing immigration solely through the lens of labor markets, the project encouraged policymakers to recognize immigrants as one of society's most concentrated sources of entrepreneurial energy.

History offers ample evidence.

Many of America's most transformative companies, industries and innovations have been shaped by first-generation immigrants or the children of immigrants. From science and technology to healthcare, manufacturing, finance and the arts, newcomers have repeatedly expanded the nation's capacity for growth and reinvention.

In this sense, immigration is not merely a demographic phenomenon.

It is an innovation strategy.

The work also highlighted an often-overlooked historical reality.

For much of its early history, the United States embraced relatively open immigration policies. As noted by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Americans generally encouraged broad immigration throughout the 18th and much of the 19th centuries before significant restrictions emerged later.

The nation's rise was shaped in no small part by people willing to leave one world behind in order to help build another.

That observation feels especially relevant today.

As countries compete globally for talent, entrepreneurs and innovators, the ability to attract ambitious individuals may become one of the defining competitive advantages of the 21st century.

For GREEN::HOUSE, the project reinforced a broader lesson::

Entrepreneurship is not merely a set of skills.

It is a mindset.

And some of the world's most entrepreneurial people reveal themselves not when they start companies, but when they decide to start over.

Because long before they launch a business, they have already demonstrated a willingness to do something profoundly entrepreneurial:

Bet on a future they cannot yet see. ::

For related reading, see USC, COBI Fellows, UDM, and Health + Social.