Immigrant entrepreneurs are fueling U.S. technology and engineering companies.(HEADLINE)

While the contribution of skilled immigrants to America's technology and engineering startups has been recognized for the past decade as critical to the emergence of many of America's most entrepreneurial companies and huge, new industries, little has been known about the backgrounds of these immigrant entrepreneurs. What types of education have these technology and engineering entrepreneurs received? Why did they come to the United States?

A report recently released by The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation that tracked the educational backgrounds of immigrant entrepreneurs who were key founders of technology and engineering companies from 1995 to 2005 shows a strong correlation between educational attainment (particularly in science, technology, engineering and math) and entrepreneurship.

The study, which could serve as a wakeup call to leaders concerned about America's competitive advantage, shows that 96% of immigrant founders of technology and engineering companies held bachelor's degrees and 74% held graduate or postgraduate degrees. Seventy-five percent of the highest degrees among immigrant entrepreneurs were in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). Moreover, 53% of the immigrant founders of U.S.-based technology and engineering companies completed their highest degrees in U.S. universities.

Conducted by researchers at Duke University and the University of California at Berkeley, the study is a follow-up to a report released in January that showed that in 25.3% of technology and engineering companies started in the United States from 1995 to 2005, at least one key founder was foreign-born. Nationwide, these immigrant-founded companies produced $52 billion in sales and employed 450,000 workers in 2005. The majority of these immigrant entrepreneurs came from India, United Kingdom, China, Taiwan, Japan and Germany.

"Our research confirms that advanced education in science, technology, engineering and math is correlated with high rates of entrepreneurship and innovation" said lead researcher Vivek Wadhwa, executive in residence, Pratt School of Engineering, Master of Engineering Management Program at Duke University. "The U.S. economy depends on these high rates of entrepreneurship and innovation to maintain its global edge. Our higher education system has historically attracted talented immigrants from around the world to the United States to study. We now face a choice--to encourage more Americans to complete higher degrees in these fields, or to encourage foreign students to stay in the United States after completing their degrees. We need to do both."

More than half of the foreign-born founders of U.S. technology and engineering businesses ...