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While it’s easy to celebrate immigrants, it’s harder to admit we’re taking them for granted. Neither the left nor the right have any desire to open the doors to freer immigration. The longer we keep up the rhetoric that to live in the US is a privilege, not a right; that immigrants should feel lucky to be allowed to settle in the US, not the other way round - the closer we get to losing our reputation as the land of the free. Semyon Dukach op-ed on immigration is published in today's Fortune Magazine.
Let’s all remember that:
- Within 20 years, the US population will decline without immigrants
- Most of our unicorns and top AI companies were founded by immigrants
- The majority of US Nobel prize winners in medicine, chemistry and physics were immigrants
We need to get over our superiority complex and humbly embrace the fact that we - like most countries around the world - only thrive when we open up our borders to people who have sacrificed, fought and survived in order to be here and make our country richer. Investors, we need to support immigrant entrepreneurs in any way we can. Let’s find them where they are, help train them, support their network building.
Offer up 30 minutes a week to advise and guide founders who you may not invest in, but who could blossom with your help. Seek immigrant founders out, not wait for them to come to you. Go to events run by Ukrainian innovators, resisting and fighting the Russian invasion with new initiatives. Participate in accelerators that only work with minority founders.
One Way Ventures only invests in exceptional immigrant founders, as part of a mission to support every human being’s right to live, work and build wherever they choose. We recently launched a Collective of immigrant unicorn founders to support other immigrant entrepreneurs. If you’d like more advice on how to support this unique, strong and exciting group of entrepreneurs, reach out.
Happy immigrants day.
