That's America: 10 Stocks Launched by Immigrants

America may be the great melting pot, but it hasn't always fully embraced the immigrants who have arrived on its shores and helped build its foundations. For years, there have been heated debates over everything from how many visas the government should issue to whether newcomers to America are stealing jobs and lowering wages for U.S. citizens.

Indeed, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum rose to national prominence partly on his support for building a barrier along the border with Mexico. On the other side of the debate, the Obama administration has pledged to make creating a path for illegal immigrants to become legal a top priority.

But no matter where people stand on the immigration issue there is one thing that isn't up for debate: Foreign-born entrepreneurs have founded some of the nation's biggest companies, and have been responsible for employing millions of Americans over the course of U.S. history.

Nearly 30 years after coming to this country, Vivek Wadhwa, an Indian immigrant, two-time entrepreneur and visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley (he holds similar appointments at Harvard and Duke Universities) co-authored a study that found that, between 1995 and 2005, more than a quarter of the nation's tech startups had at least one founder who was foreign born. Perhaps more important, immigrant-founded tech companies generated more than $50 billion in annual sales and, in 2005, employed some 450,000 people. The numbers are even greater if you look beyond the tech sector, he says.

"America is the most desirable country in the world for a foreigner," says Wadhwa. "And it is also the most entrepreneurial society on earth. America encourages risk-taking. It's called the American Dream."

From the French-born founder of DuPont (DD) who started out selling gunpowder in the early 1800s to Hungarian-born Andy Grove, the co-founder of Intel (INTC), corporate America and Americans have long benefitted from such risk-taking immigrant entrepreneurs. With Independence Day upon us, SmartMoney surveyed the corporate landscape looking for major American companies that were founded by immigrants. From the bluest (and oldest) of blue chips to the biggest of upstart tech giants, here is a look at 10 companies that fulfill the promise of the American Dream -- and provide tens of thousands of Americans with jobs.