 "Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a rally. Photo: AP|PTI")
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has built his election campaign on a strong anti-immigrant sentiment, is less rich than several immigrants featuring in Forbes' list of the richest people in America.
Trump saw his fortunes take a hit by USD 800 million over the last year, with the real estate tycoon dropping 35 spots on the Forbes list from 121st to the 156th spot this year.
At 42, more than 10 percent of those on the Forbes' list of America's 400 wealthiest people are immigrants, who have achieved great success in business in the country. Of the 42 achievers, 14 tycoons have amassed a fortune bigger than Trump's, Forbes said.
70-year-old Trump's fortune slid to USD 3.7 billion from the USD 4.5 billion due to "cooling property prices and new information about his holdings".
Forbes said foreign-born members of The Forbes 400 have a combined net worth of nearly USD 250 billion. Coming from 21 different countries, the immigrants are a crucial fabric of the American economic growth story.
"From the proverbial garage in Silicon Valley to the boardroom of Wall Street, the immigrant American dreamers remain a key cog in the American entrepreneurialism machine," Forbes said.
Among the notable foreign-born members of America's rich list are Google co-founder and Alphabet president Sergey Brin, who leads the pack as the wealthiest immigrant billionaire, with a USD 37.5 billion fortune.
Brin is one of four Forbes 400 members who was born in the former Soviet Union. He went on to pursue a PhD at Stanford University, where he met Larry Page and dropped out to start Google.
Brin, along with investor and philanthropist George Soros, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, media baron Rupert Murdoch, WhatsApp co-founder, Jan Koum, and eBay founding president, Jeffrey Skoll, are among the 14 immigrants richer than Trump.
A University of Pennsylvania alumnus who's now worth USD 11.6 billion, Musk was born in South Africa to an engineer father, and reportedly started programming video games as a preteen.
An advocate for refugees, Soros lived through the Nazi occupation of Hungary during the Second World War and is now the richest hedge fund manager in the world with a USD 24.9 billion net worth, Forbes said.
European immigrants took up 15 slots on the Forbes list of America's richest. As a single nation, Israel leads the lot as the top exporter with six members figuring in the list, while India has five and Hungary and Taiwan are tied for third with four.
Symphony Technology founder Romesh Wadhwani, co-founder of outsourcing firm Syntel Bharat and Neerja Desai, Airline veteran Rakesh Gangwal, entrepreneur John Kapoor and Silicon Valley angel investor, Kavitark Ram Shriram, are among the Indian-origin persons to find a spot in the list.
