Jag har tidigare presenterat studier som tyder på att invandrare kan medföra ekonomiskt gynnsamma effekter i Tyskland och i USA. En ny studie, ”Migrant Inventors and the Technological Advantage of Nations”, finner att invandrade investerare kan bidra genom spridning av teknologisk kunskap:

We investigate the relationship between the presence of migrant inventors and the dynamics of innovation in the migrants’ receiving countries. We find that countries are 25 to 50 percent more likely to gain advantage in patenting in certain technologies given a twofold increase in the number of foreign inventors from other nations that specialize in those same technologies. … We complement our results with micro-evidence showing that migrant inventors are more prevalent in the first bulk of patents of a country in a given technology, as compared to patents filed at later stages. We interpret these results as tangible evidence of migrants facilitating the technology-specific diffusion of knowledge across nations.

Detta innebär självfallet inte att alla typer av invandrare ger samhällsekonomiska vinster i alla länder och tider, men studien lägger ytterligare bevis till den forskning som visar att vissa typer av invandrare har potential att göra det. På ett betydandet sätt.