Designation Detr@it

Guest Column

A Celebration Of
Immigrant Entrepreneurs

rom 1995-2005, im-
Media, a coalition of Michi-
migrants to Michigan
gan's largest ethnic and
were three times as
minority media publications,
likely as non-immi-
including the Jewish News.
grants to start a business,
The crowd was indeed
according to the U.S. Small
diverse and international.
Business Administration.
Among them were four Arab
Israeli visitors studying
The incredible job growth
minority economic develop-
potential immigrants bring
Steve
to our community inspired
ment, the Mexican and Ca-
Tobocman
Global Detroit's Dec. 1
nadian Consulates, the Afri-
Special to the
"Celebration of Immigrant
can/Caribbean and the Arab
_Jewish News
Entrepreneurs."
Chambers of Commerce,
A diverse array of 125
Indian entrepreneurs, and a
business and community
delegation from the Council
leaders gathered in Compuware's
on Asian Pacific Affairs (CAPA).
top floor auditorium to join in the
They joined to hear remarks
event. It was co-sponsored by Global
from Detroit City Council President
Detroit, a regional economic develop-
Pro Tem Gary Brown, as well as to
ment initiative to create growth by
celebrate the success of Israeli-born
tapping into the potential of Metro
entrepreneur Itai Ben-Gal and his Rus-
Detroit's immigrant and international
sian-born partner Victor Nemirovsky.
Brown spoke with passion about
communities, and by New Michigan

making Detroit a welcoming city to
new residents, new investment and
entrepreneurs. The crowd also heard
from ltai Ben-Gal, cofounder of iRule,
a smartphone application that allows
one to control home electronics from
a phone. Ben-Gal and his partner are
tech tinkerers who turned their hobby
of home theaters into new technol-
ogy and a new venture that will gross
more than $1 million in 2012 with
sales in more than 40 countries.
Already they have created nine jobs
and brought those jobs to Downtown
Detroit.
It turns out that Ben-Gal and
Nemirovsky's story as immigrant
entrepreneurs is not unique. In fact,
over the last decade, immigrant en-
trepreneurs in Michigan are estimated
to be responsible for creating 32.8
percent of all the high-tech firms in
the state — a startling statistic when

you consider that only 6 percent
of Michigan's population is foreign
born. Michigan actually ranks third in
the nation in this statistic, suggesting
that we all might want to rethink our
image of immigrants and what they
bring.
The most surprising statistic relat-
ed to Ben-Gal and Nemirovsky's story,
however, may be around their innova-
tive spirit as immigrants. According
to the latest statistics, Michigan's im-
migrants accounted for an estimated
45 percent of the international patent
applications filed from the state. This
suggests that immigrants were more
than seven times as likely as non-
immigrants to invent technologies
that were worthy of an international
patent, a costly process usually only
reserved for inventions with true
commercial or scientific merit.

Continued on page 4

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December 15 • 2011

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