Open Doors Wider for Skilled Immigrants

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Saxenian's research had shown that from 1980 to 1998, 24% of Silicon Valley startups had an Indian or Chinese founder. The Chinese were starting twice as many companies as Indians in that period. We found that 52.4% of Silicon Valley startups had one or more immigrants as a key founder. Indians had taken the lead in starting companies, but founders originated from all over the world—from Australia to Iran to Vietnam.

The Competitive Edge

What became clear is that skilled immigrants have become a significant driving force in the creation of new businesses in the U.S. and that their economic contributions have increased over the past decade. To understand the intellectual contributions, we analyzed the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) patent databases. When you have a patent with global utility and want to apply for international protection, this is usually where you start.

The results were startling. In 2006, 24.2% of U.S.-originated international patent applications were authored or co-authored by foreign nationals residing in the U.S. These immigrant non-citizens, as we called them, are typically foreign graduate students completing their PhDs, green card holders awaiting citizenship, and employees of multinationals on temporary visas. This percentage had increased from 7.8% in 1988—and this count doesn't include immigrants who had become citizens.

In other words, it is skilled immigrants who are increasingly providing the intellectual capital that fuels innovation and gives the U.S. a competitive edge in the global economy. The problem is a significant number of those who are contributing this intellectual talent may not be here permanently.

The Bigger Issue

There's a yearly political debate about a temporary worker visa category called the H1B (see BusinessWeek.com, Fall 2005, "The Visa Maze"). These visas allow U.S. companies and universities to temporarily employ foreign workers who have a bachelor's degree. Businesses argue they need more of these visas in order to remain globally competitive. They say these visas provide a steady flow of highly skilled professionals who are in short supply, and reduce the need for them to move their operations abroad. Opponents argue that these temporary workers displace substantial numbers of experienced U.S. engineers and cause a lowering of wages.

It doesn't matter which side is right here. The bigger issue is that if we do need workers with special skills, we should ask them to come and stay. Let's offer them permanent residence rather than short-term visas. Temporary workers can't start businesses, and we haven't given them the incentive to help us compete globally or to integrate into American society. They can't sink deep roots because their visas limit how long they can stay.

We also want to keep the best and brightest students who complete their graduate studies in our universities. They come here with a global outlook and a hunger to succeed. They understand the culture and values of the countries we're going to be competing with in the new global economy. We want these young and brilliant minds on our shores.

We have a big challenge ahead as we decide how to deal with the millions of unskilled workers who have entered the U.S. without documents (see BusinessWeek.com, 8/21/06, "If We Can Take One Big Employer Down"). An equally important issue, one that will affect the long term competitiveness of the U.S., is the issue of skilled immigrants who came through the front door.

My view: Let's build really high fences, but have big gates. Let's be very selective in whom we admit, but open the doors to as many as we need.

Wadhwa is Wertheim Fellow at the Harvard Law School and executive in residence at Duke University. He is a tech entrepreneur who founded two technology companies. His research can be found at www.globalizationresearch.com .