Complex U.S. Immigration System Limits Entrepreneurship, Innovation

A growing body of research conducted by leading U.S. scholars finds immigrants positively impact entrepreneurship, innovation, investment, and knowledge transfer while restrictive federal immigration policies negatively impact the U.S. economy and American workers.

Rajshree Agarwal, the Rudolph Lamone Chair in Entrepreneurship and Strategy and director of the Ed Snider Center for Enterprise and Markets at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, authored an issue brief that outlines the steps federal policymakers can take to ensure the U.S. immigration system enhances U.S. economic growth, stimulates startup creation and innovation, and fosters better work opportunities for native residents and immigrants. 

Agarwal says:

“In a knowledge-based economy, wages and job opportunities for U.S.-born, domestic workers depend on how visa and work requirement rules improve or impede innovation, entrepreneurship, investment and knowledge transfer. Badly constructed rules will erode each of these factors, creating lower wages and job opportunities for all Americans.”

Agarwal outlines a growing body of research, including her own, that finds restrictive federal immigration policies negatively impact the U.S. economy and American workers.

She argues that comprehensive reform of the U.S. immigration system would lead to higher U.S. economic growth, more startup creation and innovation, and better work opportunities for all Americans. In the meantime, she urges policymakers to focus on more incremental changes that will result in reduced offshoring of jobs and more high-skill immigrants staying in the United States to start firms and create jobs. 

Issue Brief: Complex U.S. Immigration System Limits Entrepreneurship, Innovation