Every year around the Fourth of July, the newly renamed Andrew Carnegie Foundation drops its "Great Immigrants, Great Americans" list. It honors a select group of naturalized citizens who have built major companies, won Pulitzers, or completely altered American culture.
But this year hits different.
The 2026 announcement comes at a moments of massive friction. Immigration advocates are sounding alarms over a tightening squeeze on legal paths to entry, especially highly skilled visas. Against that backdrop of political fighting, this list isn't just a polite round of applause. It's a heavy-hitting reminder of a hard economic truth: America fails to function without foreign-born talent.
Look at the data. A 2026 report by the National Foundation for American Policy found that 59% of startups valued at $1 billion or more were founded or cofounded by immigrants. If you count the children of immigrants, that number jumps to 66%.
This isn't about charity. It's about competitive survival.
The Standouts Driving American Innovation
The 25 honorees in the 2026 class span 21 different countries of origin. They aren't just participating in American life; they are running some of its most critical machinery.
Take Dr. Iman Abuzeid. Born in Saudi Arabia to Sudanese parents, she finished medical school in England before intentionally choosing to move to the US. Why? Because of the unique scale of American opportunity. Today, she's the cofounder and CEO of Incredible Health, a massive AI-driven career platform that tackles the critical nursing shortage by matching healthcare professionals with hospitals across the country.
Then there's Jane Fraser. The Scottish-born executive sits at the absolute pinnacle of global finance as the chair and CEO of Citi. While politicians argue over borders, Fraser manages a financial institution that moves trillions of dollars through the global economy from her headquarters in New York.
The tech sector features names like Nikesh Arora, the India-born chairman and CEO of Palo Alto Networks, and Hock E. Tan, the Malaysia-born head of tech giant Broadcom. These aren't just executives holding down positions; they are the people designing the cybersecurity and semiconductor infrastructure keeping the modern world online.
Culture Isn't a Fixed Target
A common anxiety among critics of immigration is that newcomers dilute American culture. The artists and academics on the 2026 list prove the exact opposite: they build it.
Cristian Măcelaru left Romania at 16 to study music at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan. In 2024, more than a billion people watched him conduct the Orchestre National France during the Paris Olympics opening ceremony. Now, as the music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, he views his background as an asset for local American communities. Măcelaru notes that culture gets stronger when it appreciates different viewpoints, intentionally diversifying the musical programming in Cincinnati to reflect a broader world.
At Harvard University, Gregory Nagy has spent over 50 years teaching "The Ancient Greek Hero," currently the longest-running class at the university. Born in Hungary, Nagy has watched generations of students pass through his lecture hall. He points out that the influx of new cultures keeps foundational ideas alive. Borrowing a concept from Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, Nagy argues that repetition changes an idea even when you think you're just repeating it. New perspectives don't destroy tradition; they stop it from rotting.
The Full 2026 Great Immigrants List
Here is the complete class of the 25 naturalized citizens recognized by the Andrew Carnegie Foundation for 2026, along with their origins and roles:
- Iman Abuzeid (Saudi Arabia) – Cofounder and CEO, Incredible Health
- Sunil Amrith (Kenya) – Professor of History, Yale University
- Nikesh Arora (India) – Chairman and CEO, Palo Alto Networks
- Mahzarin R. Banaji (India) – Professor of Psychology, Harvard University
- Sanjiv Chopra (India) – Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
- Ingrid Daubechies (Belgium) – Professor Emerita of Mathematics, Duke University
- Hernan Diaz (Argentina) – Pulitzer Prize-winning Author and Essayist
- Jane Fraser (Scotland) – Chair and CEO, Citi
- Johannes Fruehauf (Germany) – Founder and Chairman, LabCentral
- Gabriela Hearst (Uruguay) – Fashion Designer and Creative Director
- Abbas Karimi (Afghanistan) – Paralympic Swimmer and Refugee Advocate
- Reshma Kewalramani (India) – President and CEO, Vertex Pharmaceuticals
- Jeong H. Kim (South Korea) – Engineer, Entrepreneur, and Professor
- Ling Ma (China) – Author and Professor, University of Chicago
- Cristian Măcelaru (Romania) – Music Director, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
- Guadalupe Maravilla (El Salvador) – Visual Artist
- Joel Mokyr (Netherlands) – Professor of Economics, Northwestern University
- Hiroshi Motomura (Japan) – Professor of Law, UCLA
- Gregory Nagy (Hungary) – Professor of Classics, Harvard University
- Antonio Neri (Argentina) – President and CEO, Hewlett Packard Enterprise
- Cristina Rivera Garza (Mexico) – Pulitzer Prize-winning Author, University of Houston
- James A. Robinson (United Kingdom) – University Professor, University of Chicago
- Hock E. Tan (Malaysia) – President and CEO, Broadcom
- Omar M. Yaghi (Jordan) – Professor of Chemistry, UC Berkeley
- Michelle Zatlyn (Canada) – Cofounder and President, Cloudflare
Why This Matters to You Right Now
It's easy to look at a list of CEOs and ivy-league professors and think this doesn't impact your daily life. It does.
If you use the internet, Cloudflare (cofounded by honoree Michelle Zatlyn) protects the sites you visit. If you rely on modern enterprise computing, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (led by Antonio Neri) powers the infrastructure. The lifesaving drugs developed by Vertex Pharmaceuticals happen under the leadership of Reshma Kewalramani.
When legal immigration pipelines choke, the loss isn't abstract. It means fewer medical breakthroughs, fewer job-creating tech startups, and less vibrant local arts scenes. The Carnegie Foundation has honored over 790 citizens since starting this initiative in 2006. The collective data shows that blocking these individuals doesn't save American jobs; it stops the creation of whole new American industries.
To see these stories in action, check out the Andrew Carnegie Foundation's Webby Award-winning digital comic series, which documents the specific hurdles these individuals faced while navigating the complex US immigration system. Track the policy changes currently making their way through Congress, as the future of high-skilled H-1B visas and refugee caps will directly dictate who makes it onto this list in the decade to come.
