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 new 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

With his signature fearlessness and clarity, Wadhwa offers a concise framework for understanding the Immigrant Exodus and offers a recipe for reversal and rapid recovery.

Visit wdp.wharton.upenn.edu/books/the-immigrant-exodus for more information.