Silicon Valley's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs

Publication Date: June 1999

Publisher: Public Policy Institute of California

Author(s): AnnaLee Saxenian

Research Area: Population and demographics; Science and technology

Type: Report

Coverage: California

Abstract:

Immigration has always been an important policy issue for California, However, researchers and policymakers have focused most of their attention on low-skilled immigrants. This study focuses, instead, on the highly skilled immigrant entrepreneurs who are managing high-tech firms in Silicon Valley. Chinese and Indian computer scientists and engineers were running one-quarter of the region's high-tech firms in 1998. In that year alone, these firms accounted for nearly $17 billion in sales and over 58,000 jobs.