WASHINGTON DC – Richard Caruso, this year’s Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, is the son of Italian immigrants. As a new National Venture Capital Association study notes, it?s fairly common for immigrants or their children to become entrepreneurial leaders in the United States.

American Made examines the role of immigrant entrepreneurs in building America?s high-growth companies. The report finds that, since 1990, one in four venture-backed firms were started by immigrants. These firms have a huge economic impact. They have created more than 400,000 jobs and collectively represent a market capitalization of roughly $500 billion.

Eighty-seven percent of these firms operate in high value sectors, such as information technology, life sciences, and high tech manufacturing. The report also sounds a warning note. Two-thirds of the immigrant founders surveyed believe that current U.S. immigration policy hinders the ability of future foreign-born entrepreneurs to start American companies today.

?A key lesson of the study is the importance of maintaining a more open, legal immigration system,? said Stuart Anderson, co-author of the report. ?Few of these impressive immigrant entrepreneurs could have started a company immediately upon arriving in the U.S. – many were just children, international students

or H-1B professionals – but it?s clear that America helped shape them into entrepreneurs as much as they have helped shape America.?

The study found that 25 percent of the venture-backed, public companies that were established in the last fifteen years were started by one or more immigrant founders. Within the high technology sector, that percentage rises to 40 percent. The aggregate market capitalization of these companies, which includes

Intel, Google, Yahoo!, Sun Microsystems and eBay, exceeds $500 billion.

Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo!, came to this country from Taiwan at the age of ten and went on to Stanford University where he and David Filo developed the concept for the world?s largest global online network, now headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.

“Yahoo! would not be an American company today if the United States had not welcomed my family and me almost thirty years ago,? said Yang. ?We must do all that we can to ensure that the door is open for the next generation of top entrepreneurs, engineers and scientists from around the world to come to the

U.S. and thrive. Whether they arrive as children, students, or professionals, we want the best and the brightest here. Our immigration policy should reflect that or these talents will go elsewhere.?

While immigrant founders of U.S. public companies come from across the globe, the most common countries of origin are India, Israel and Taiwan. When aggregating countries into regions, immigrants from Europe represented more than 25 percent of all company founders.

The study also found that immigrant founders are responsible for building a high percentage of the most innovative American companies, with 87 percent operating in sectors such as high-tech manufacturing, information technology and life sciences. These companies are headquartered across the country but are concentrated in five states: California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Washington and Texas.

Of the more than 400,000 worldwide jobs created by immigrant-founded ventured-backed public companies, 70 percent (more than 280,000) are in the high-tech manufacturing sector. Given the high tech nature of the businesses started by immigrant entrepreneurs, these companies often pay higher

salaries but employ fewer people overall than companies in other sectors.

Immigrant entrepreneurs have an even stronger presence among today?s start up companies. Given the lack of public data available for these private companies, the authors surveyed more than 340 venture backed start-ups and found nearly half (47 percent) were founded by one or more immigrants. The trend

is likely to continue in coming years as almost two-thirds of these immigrant entrepreneurs intend to start or have already started additional businesses in the United States Private start-up companies mirrored their public counterparts in location and industry concentration.

Fifty-six percent of the emerging companies founded by immigrants were headquartered in California, followed by Massachusetts and New York. Sixty-two percent of the companies were in the high technology or life sciences sectors. India was the most prevalent country of origin with 28 percent

followed by the United Kingdom (11 percent), China (5 percent), Iran (4 percent), and France (4 percent).

Nearly half of the immigrant entrepreneurs in the survey (46 percent) arrived in the U.S. as students. More than half of the founders started their businesses within 12 years of entering the United States. They hold an average of 14.5 patents. Sixty-nine percent of these individuals have become American citizens.

?As a nation of immigrants, the United States has harnessed the intellectual power of the best and brightest minds from abroad for 300 years. Foreign-born entrepreneurs have contributed significantly to our economy and our global leadership in innovation. It?s time that we recognize their achievements,?

said Mark Heesen, president of the National Venture Capital Association. ?There is no question that the U.S. must remain a magnet of foreign-born talent if we are to maintain our competitive edge. However, current quotas on highly-skilled immigrants are insufficient and these great minds are beginning to look

elsewhere to build their businesses,? Heesen said.

.American Made revealed an increasing concern that current U.S. immigration policy is jeopardizing our ability to attract and retain critical talent from across the globe. More than two-thirds of immigrant entrepreneurs agreed that U.S. immigration policy has made it more difficult than in the past to start a

company in America.

Two-thirds of the private companies surveyed who use H-1B visas (temporary visa to hire skilled foreign nationals) say that current immigration laws harm U.S. competitiveness. Forty percent stated that current immigration policies have negatively impacted their companies when competing against other firms

globally. One-third of the private companies said that the lack of visas had influenced their company?s decision to place more personnel in facilities abroad.

?The current quota on H-1B visas of 65,000 has not been sufficient to meet the demand for highly skilled professionals,? said Chad Waite, general partner at OVP Venture Partners in Seattle and NVCA Board

member. ?In nine of the past 11 years, employers have exhausted the entire quota of H-1B?s prior to the end of the fiscal year. In the past three years, the quota was used up prior to the start of the fiscal year. Perhaps equally troubling, the wait in skilled green card (permanent residence) categories is five years or

more, sending a signal to current and future outstanding professionals and researchers that America may not be the place to make a career and raise your family.?

To conduct the research, the authors examined the Thomson Financial database of all publicly traded venture-backed companies founded since 1970. After eliminating those that had merged, been acquired, or were otherwise no longer publicly-traded (or in business), they used public records, Internet research,

e-mails, and phone calls to identify the nativity of the founders for the remaining companies. Since information on privately-held venture-backed companies is not as readily available as it is for public companies, the authors conducted a survey through the NVCA, which targeted its member firms? portfolio companies, and through the American Entrepreneurs for Economic Growth. More than 340

responses were received.