America is an amazing natural experiment -- a continent populated largely by self-selected immigrants. All these people had the get-up-and-go to pull up stakes and come here, a temperament that made them different from their friends and relatives who stayed home. Immigrants are the original venture capitalists, risking their human capital -- their lives -- on a dangerous and arduous voyage into the unknown.
Not surprisingly, given this entrepreneurial spirit, immigrants are self-employed at much higher rates than native-born people, regardless of what nation they emigrate to or from. And the rate of entrepreneurial activity in a nation is correlated with the number of immigrants it absorbs. According to a cross-national study, "The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor," conducted jointly by Babson College and the London School of Economics, the four nations with the highest per capita creation of new companies are the United States, Canada, Israel and Australia -- all nations of immigrants. New company creation per capita is a strong predictor of gross domestic product, and so the conclusion is simple: Immigrants equal national wealth.
The difference between the United States and most other countries is our entrepreneurial spirit. That spirit comes from the immigrant nature of our country, as we get further from being an immigrant, get comfortable, that spirit will subside. I would like to see a study that presents correlation between entrepreneurship and which generation of American it is. My guess is the correlation would be negative, meaning as the generation grows (2nd, 3rd, 4th) the less likely they are likely to be entrepreneurs. We need to keep bringing immigrants to this country.
Let's get the lesson of Sept. 11 right. We need to screen who gets into the United States, to keep out the suicide bombers. But if they're not here to kill us, chances are they will inject new life into our economy. In my book, I predicted that future historians will be able to date the beginning of the decline of the American empire to the day we stop being the destination of choice for immigrants. Ominously, U.S. immigration peaked in 2000. Is this the beginning of the end? I hope Osama bin Laden will not end the great American experiment.
Another aspect of 9/11 is foreign students not being granted student visas, which encourage the world's youth to come to the United States to study. Universities are having a tough time filling up slots for these science and math students because American public schools are not producing math and science candidates.
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