June 10: A startling 43.8%, or 219 companies, in the 2022 Fortune 500 list were founded by immigrants or their children, according to a new report by the American Immigration Council.

“Immigrant entrepreneurs have long been an important part of America’s economic success story. Some of the largest and most recognizable American companies were founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants. This includes household names such as Apple and Costco, as well as newcomers to the Fortune 500 list like Jackson Financial and Caesar’s Entertainment. Even Moderna, the pharmaceutical company and vaccine producer, was founded by a Canadian-born stem cell biologist, Derrick J. Rossi, whose parents themselves emigrated from Malta.

“…Of those companies, 102 were founded directly by foreign-born individuals while another 117 were founded by the children of immigrants. Of this year’s crop of New American Fortune 500, several notable new companies made the cut.

“These New American firms make important contributions to both the U.S. and the global economy. In fiscal year 2021, the 219 New American companies on the 2022 Fortune 500 list brought in $7.2 trillion in revenue. To put it in context, that figure is greater than the GDP of many developed countries—including Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom. In fact, a country with a GDP equal to the revenues of the New American Fortune 500 firms would be the third largest economy in the world, behind only the United States and China.”: American Immigration Council

Where would America be without its enterprising immigrants?