WP:A record number of U.S. billionaires are immigrants

[Riggo-toni]

Thought about putting this in the election thread, but decided it would be better to have a full discussion here. I'm admittedly pro-immigration but anti-safety net for immigrants, anti bilingual ed, and believe any immigrants who commit a felony should get fast tracked out.

 

“There is no other country on the planet where you or your parents can show up and with a lot of hard work create huge wealth within one generation,” said businessman Raul Fernandez, who was born in Washington to immigrant parents from Cuba and from Ecuador.

Six of the 42 richest immigrants on the Forbes list are from Israel, five are from India, and four each are from Hungary and Taiwan. Moscow native and Google co-founder Sergey Brin, whose parents brought him to the United States when he was six, leads the immigrant list with an estimated net worth of $37.5 billion.

Brin’s “mathematician parents faced anti-Semitism in their homeland,” Forbes staffer Jennifer Wang writes. “They were reportedly forced to sit in separate rooms during university entrance exams, and were limited in their choice of careers.”

All but two of the Forbes 42 are self-made, and a third are richer than real estate baron Donald Trump, who has made immigration a central theme of his candidacy. 

According to a report on immigration and entrepreneurship by the Kauffman Foundation, “there is a little debate about the economic contributions of immigrant entrepreneurs.” The Kauffman report said “immigrants are  twice as likely to become entrepreneurs as native-born Americans.”

“The risk-taking that defines an immigrant’s experience in starting anew in a country often continues to benefit immigrant entrepreneurs as they channel a healthy appetite for risk in a way that leads to new business ideas,” according to the report.

[Elessar78]

Build. A. Wall.

[Larry]

They took our jobs. 

[Elessar78]

I was reading this thing last year about one of the biggest franchisors in Dunkin Donuts. Portuguese immigrant. Bought a franchise back in the 60s and 70s. His family started immigrating from Portugal as well and they bought their own DD franchises. Eventually, the orginal patriarch bought them out so he has his "empire" in the North East. What he eventually learned was it wasn't about doughnuts, but real estate. He'd own the buildings under his DDs and rent from himself.

I think in the grand scheme of things, it's thrust upon many immigrants to take risks (immigrating is a risk in itself), because they don't have the traditional avenues that "native-born" do. 

I'm a first generation Filipino immigrant, but mine is an anomaly to most other immigrant stories. Filipinos don't tend to have a language barrier, allows us to take more "traditional" jobs. Which, I think, hurts us in the entrepreneurial end of things. 

[Riggo-toni]

They got them Muslims in the Philippines. I hope they did some extreme vetting to make sure you're one of the good ones....did they ask if you were Christian, or make you eat bacon?

[Elessar78]

8 minutes ago, Riggo-toni said:

They got them Muslims in the Philippines. I hope they did some extreme vetting to make sure you're one of the good ones....did they ask if you were Christian, or make you eat bacon?

Sheeeet.

The INS officer asked me how I wanted my Certificate of Naturalization.

I said, "Wrapped in bacon."

[twa]

Not surprising they come here for opportunity, and that you can buy citizenship doesn't hurt either.

Most I know have better work ethics than half the people here

[Kosher Ham]

A record number of American people are lazy. Same thing. 

[Elessar78]

26 minutes ago, Kosher Ham said:

A record number of American people are lazy. Same thing. 

I don't think it's exactly that. YOu can be lazy here and earn a decent living. I think the work ethic is just a carryover from the old country: You have to really grind to eke out a living, so they get here and it's just the continuation. I doubt it's like, oh I have to really make the most of this opportunity. It's the only way most of them know how to live and work. 

Before we got to the US, my mom worked 3 jobs. Here, at the beginning, she had 1 or 2 jobs. Eventually she only had to keep one, but she kept the long hours. 

I secretly "laugh" at my wife when she says she feels guilty not seeing our kids enough because she works 40 hours. It's certainly a luxury to be able to feel that way instead of having to work 80 just to make it in America. 

So anyway, on another tangent, we don't get people who advocate for higher minimum wage—ya gotta grind to eke out a living.