American Competitiveness Hinges on Immigrants

Although the United States has led in creating the technologies that have driven major innovations in previous decades, continued American leadership is not assured. Robert Samuelson’s “China’s breathtaking transformation into a scientific superpower,” makes that clear.

The tech industry shares the goal of the Trump Administration and Congress: we want to ensure that America remains a global leader in advancing transformative technologies while creating high-paying jobs in communities across the country.

To meet our shared goal, we need to embrace one of our nation’s greatest strengths: immigration. Half of the 87 U.S. startups companies valued at over $1 billion were founded by at least one immigrant and each one of these companies employs on average 760 workers.

While countries like China are instituting visa policies that allow scientists and entrepreneurs to fill open jobs in less than a week, the United States is considering immigration proposals that will make it more difficult for us to attract top talent, including rescinding work authorization for the spouses of high-skilled immigrants and limiting the ability of foreign entrepreneurs to invest in the U.S..

The race to become “a scientific and technical superpower” starts with people power and we should ask ourselves if we are winning the race to attract world-class talent to the U.S. The rest of the world isn’t waiting on us to decide.

Public Policy Tags: Workforce, Immigration

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