by Rick Lowe

Michael Mandel in this Business Week Online column explains What It Means To Hit 300 Million people in the U.S.

Here is a brief excerpt:

“INFLUX OF TALENT. The final link between innovation and population runs through immigration. Without a steady influx of the foreign-born, the U.S. would be nowhere close to the 300 million mark. Between 2000 and 2005, immigrants accounted for more than 40% of population growth, not even counting the children born in this country to immigrant parents.”

“What’s more, immigrants seem to have an impact on innovation out of proportion to their numbers. Andy Grove of Intel (INTC) originally came from Hungary and Jerry Yang of Yahoo! was born in Taiwan, while Sergey Brin of Google came from Russia at the age of 6.”

“The conventional explanation is that immigrants, by nature, are greater risk-takers and more energetic—or else they would have stayed in their home countries. And because they are not integrated into the existing social networks, it’s easier for them to try something new.”

It has certainly been my experience that the foreigners in our midst bring a lot to the table so to speak.

Also, I often wonder what our charitable organizations would be like without the time and commitment of our expatriat community.

What’s your take?