Via Dingel, a paper from NBER regarding immigrant contributions as entrepreneurs, that relates to earlier musings regarding specialization motivated by language-dependent opportunities:

Higher H-1B admissions increase immigrant science and engineering (SE) employment and patenting by investors with Indian and Chinese names in cities and firms dependent upon the program relative to their peers. Most specifications find limited effects for native SE employment or patenting. We are able to rule out displacement effects and small crowding-in effects may exist. Total SE employment and invention increases with higher admissions primarily through direct contributions of immigrants.

[Crowding in would mean that Indian and Chinese entrepreneurs enable even more entrepreneurial activity than would occur in their absence, which I suppose would manifest itself as: Chinese friend takes lots of money from his parents, uses his super-programming skills and creates mega-algorithm. I help him by making phone calls to people I know. At the very least, the paper presents convincing evidence that there is no 'opportunity stealing' that occurs from immigrant entrepreneurs. In other words, it's a generate wealth and opportunities for free card.]

This research dovetails nicely with this incredibly good idea for a Startup Visa, propagated by a number of entrepreneur advocates, where immigrants would be eligible for H-1B status given certain types of self employment. At present, the H-1B is sort of a 21st century version of skilled indentured servitude, whereby US firms that have the legal apparatus to sponsor international hires can enjoy the benefits of cheaper (skilled) labor, since they have very limited exit opportunities (unless they flee home, which more and more are doing).

The ability to rapidly integrate immigrant labor (skilled and unskilled) is a feature almost entirely unique to the U.S. (and Canada). This factor alone assures much better long-term prospects than anywhere else in the world, including China. The extent to which deliberate policy helps or (as of late) harms this situation will be a major factor in determining Americans’ future wellbeing.