The Immigrant Exodus: Why America Is Losing the Global Race to Capture Entrepreneurial Talent

Many of the United States’ most innovative entrepreneurs have been immigrants, from Andrew Carnegie, Alexander Graham Bell, and Charles Pfizer to Sergey Brin, Vinod Khosla, and Elon Musk. Nearly half of Fortune 500 companies and one-quarter of all new small businesses were founded by immigrants, generating trillions of dollars annually, employing millions of workers, and helping establish the United States as the most entrepreneurial, technologically advanced society on earth.

Now, Vivek Wadhwa, an immigrant tech entrepreneur turned academic with appointments at Duke, Stanford, Emory, and Singularity Universities, draws on his new Kauffman Foundation research to show that the United States is in the midst of an unprecedented halt in high-growth, immigrant-founded start-ups. He argues that increased competition from countries like China and India and US immigration policies are leaving some of the most educated and talented entrepreneurial immigrants with no choice but to take their innovation elsewhere. The consequences to our economy are dire; our loss will be the gain of our global competitors.

In The Immigrant Exodus, Wadhwa addresses:

• Why immigrants are critical to America’s economic development and intellectual capital
• The rise and decline of the immigrant-powered startup machine in America
• Why immigrants are leaving America
• Why the visa system is broken and the impact this has had on skilled immigrants
• How the rest of the world is trying to replicate the success of Silicon Valley and recruit the best global talent

Praise for The Immigrant Exodus

“Vivek Wadhwa’s new book, The Immigrant Exodus, is admirably short, yet he packs it with righteous fury. America, he points out, has one of the greatest assets a nation can have: people yearn to live there.” —The Economist

“A thoughtful contribution to the dialogue surrounding immigration.” —Kirkus Reviews 

“Immigrants have long been the backbone of America—our nation itself was a start-up founded by immigrants. The Immigrant Exodus demonstrates the danger this country faces if it continues to turn away such a precious resource.” —World Policy Review 

“There is no better monitor of America’s shifting immigration regime than Vivek Wadhwa.” —Edward Luce, The Financial Times

Vivek Wadhwa

Vivek Wadhwa is the author of The Immigrant Exodus: Why America Is Losing the Global Race to Capture Entrepreneurial Talent, which is based on his new Kauffman Foundation research. He is director of research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization and executive in residence at the Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University; vice president of innovation and strategy at Singularity University; fellow at the Arthur & Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance, Stanford University; and distinguished visiting scholar, Halle Institute of Global Learning, Emory University. Wadhwa is a regular columnist for the Washington Post, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and Forbes.com. In February 2012, the US government awarded Wadhwa distinguished recognition as an Outstanding American by Choice—for his “commitment to this country and to the common civic values that unite us as Americans.”