Immigration reform will be a positive force in spurring economic growth, especially enacting legislation that will allow for more H1-B specialized knowledge employment based visas for employers and creating entrepreneur visas. Immigrant founded companies in the United States today have a market capitalization of “more than 900 billion”. Companies with immigrant founders like Google, Intel, eBay, Facebook, LinkedIn, SanDisk, Altera and Tesla Motors, employ over 600,000 workers most of whom are in the United States. The initial public offerings by these companies from 2006 to 2012 exceeded $167 billion. You might be wondering how does that affect you? First, these companies create jobs and job creation increases purchasing power, which leads to increased consumption of goods and services. This brings economies of scale and drives prices down. Increased consumption also leads to increased production because people are buying more goods and services and this leads to more jobs to keep up with demand. Increased consumption also leads to increased profitability for companies, which can lead to increased wages and the cycle repeats due to economic growth. Therefore, immigration reform can spur economic growth and directly affect your wages, keep the cost of goods and services down so you have more disposable income, and insure your job security.

US companies need to be able to hire more specialized employee immigrants and the US needs to create entrepreneur visas to foster a more robust, competitive, and innovative economic marketplace. For example in a recent study by the National Venture Capital Association, “fifty-seven percent of the companies interviewed replied that projects had been delayed because of the lack of specialized employee H-1B visas. Forty-three percent of the companies said the lack of H-1B visas influenced the company’s decisions to place or hire more personnel in facilities located outside the United States.”  Also, in a study by the George W. Bush Institute, it found that the “U.S. faces global competition for immigrants and it would be wise to remove some of the barriers that encourage immigrants to go elsewhere. If America’s immigration laws were [reformed], our growth would come faster.” According to economist, Richard Vedder, if the United States adopts a pro-immigration policy America’s GDP will grow by more than 2 trillion dollars. The research studies illustrate that immigration reform is needed to spur economic growth in the United States.

If you want to read more about how immigration reform will spur economic growth, take a look at these studies by the National Venture Capital Association and the George W. Bush Institute : 1.) American Made 2.0 How immigrant Entrepreneurs Continue To Contribute to the US Economy, and 2.) Growth and Immigration: A Handbook of Vital Immigration and Economic Growth Statistics.

Also, contact your House Representative in Congress and let him or her know that you want immigration reform to be passed to spur economic growth. You can find your House of Representative’s contact information by clicking here.