America's Loss is the World's Gain: America's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs, Part IV
Immigrants have historically provided one of America's greatest competitive advantages. A large and growing proportion of immigrants come with high levels of education and skill. Immigrants have co-founded firms such as Google, Intel, eBay and Yahoo.
Since even before the 2008 financial and economic crisis, however, observers have noted that a substantial number of highly skilled immigrants have started returning to their home countries.
Who are these returnees? What motivated their decision to leave the United States? How have they fared since returning?
This paper answers these questions through a survey. It finds that, although restrictive immigration policies caused some returnees to depart the United States, the most significant factors in the decision to return home were career opportunities, family ties and quality of life.
Wadhwa, V., Saxenian, A., Freeman, R. B. and Gereffi, G. (2009). America's Loss is the World's Gain: America's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs, Part 4. Ewing Marie Kauffman Foundation.