Global Competitiveness
The United States has long been the destination for the world’s most talented immigrants. Despite the last 50 years of technological advancement, American immigration policy has remained virtually unchanged, putting in danger America's global competitiveness. Yesterday's immigration policy no longer meets today’s economic needs. Only about 14 percent of all U.S. green cards are given for economic reasons, compared to more than 60 percent in Canada and Australia. With no dedicated visa for entrepreneurs and numerous barriers to residency in place for international students to stay after graduation, America's outdated immigration policy could allow other countries to out-compete us by attracting and keeping the best and brightest there and not here.
“Painful” How U.S. Immigration Policy Sends Talent Abroad, Says Leader of St. Louis Regional Chamber
Joe Reagan first became aware of the important role immigrants play in economic growth during his tenure as president of Greater Louisville, Inc., the city’s chamber of commerce. “I saw that welcoming people from all over the world was key to our economic and social success,” he says. Today, Reagan… Read More
With Four Languages to Offer, Mexican Immigrant Helps Pennsylvania Companies Make Money in Latin America
When Guillermo Velazquez left Mexico at age 26 to take an internship at the World Trade Center Pittsburgh, he actually planned to return home. But within a month he was a offered a job by the Trade Center, which valued his international business background and ability to speak four languages. Read More
Being an Immigrant Makes Adele Dorfner Roth the Perfect Person to Bring International Trade to Ohio
Adele Dorfner Roth shows exactly how a diverse city government can help spur economic growth. She came to the United States from Brazil as a small child when her father, an engineer, was hired by Mohawn, the Akron-based tire company. “He’s a huge risk taker,” Roth says. “Like most immigrants,… Read More
Immigrant Student Lands Dream Job, Leads Alaskan Town’s Economic Revival
Xi Cui received her Master’s from the University of Florida at a time when jobs were scarce. It was 2010, and the country was still struggling from the recession. Cui, who’d come from China to study urban planning, couldn’t find a Florida-based company that could afford to sponsor her work… Read More
Republican and Prominent Maryland Businessman Says Immigration Reform Must Complement Border Security
Today, Manuel “Manny” A. Rosales is the CEO of a global IT firm and has had a long career helping small businesses expand into foreign markets. He has served in several leadership positions, including as vice president of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, commissioner to California’s Small Business Development Board,… Read More
As Immigration Process Crawls, Many Bright Workers Leave the Country, Says Immigrant Tech Worker
Shri Balachandran, a technology specialist in Plano Texas, knows that America’s strength depends on its ability to recruit and retain international talent. “In technology, roughly two of every three people on the technical side and the senior business side of things are usually immigrants,” he says. “The trend is very… Read More
Sustainability Chief Sees Immigration as a Way to Revitalize American Cities
On a recent trade mission to the Canary Islands, Todd Adams was reminded of how valuable a diverse workforce can be. As the chief of sustainability and innovation at Visibility Marketing, a Cleveland-based company that offers management solutions and strategic planning for companies in the clean energy sector, Adams had… Read More
Backward Immigration Policies Force America To “Compete With Our Own University Graduates,” Says CEO
Ramiro Cavazos is a seventh-generation Texan, born to a family that originally moved to America from Spain in the late 1600s and settled in the Rio Grande Valley as ranchers and farmers. Cavezos takes great pride in his family’s heritage and their many contributions to Texas. But as the CEO… Read More
For One Young Woman, It Took Becoming a Crime Victim to Get a Green Card
Alina Luna had the grades and the drive to attend college right after high school, but she didn’t have a Social Security Number. As an undocumented immigrant who came to Atlanta from Mexico at the age of 12, she wasn’t allowed to apply for federal financial aid without it. Luna… Read More
When a Typo Can Derail a Green Card Application, Reform is Long Overdue
When Darrell Fun was serving in the Air Force JAG Corps in Korea, his fellow airmen would come to the lawyer for advice about marrying people they’d met while serving overseas. At the time, Fun says, “high-school-educated kids could do the paperwork themselves for their own marriage.” But times have… Read More
Impending Labor Challenges
The United States is facing demographic challenges that endanger its preeminent economic position in the world. An aging workforce threatens the vitality of the labor force. At the same time, the supply of U.S.-trained engineers is lagging behind nearly all other industrialized economies. At a time when tech-heavy and innovation driven industries are driving economic growth, the United States faces the prospect of being left behind.
Table 1: Share of Population Age 65+, 1996, 2006, 2016 and projected 2030
Table 2: Share of Undergrads Studying Engineering
Prioritizing Economic Needs
Many countries have identified the link between immigration and economic growth. For many, such moves are a matter of necessity–the domestic labor force is not sufficient for an expanding economy, and aging populations and declining fertility rates are creating labor shortages. Despite facing some of the same challenges, U.S. immigration policy has not changed to reflect our economy’s evolving needs.
Table 3: Percentage of All Permanent Residency Visas Given for Economic Reasons*
Need for a Start-Up Visa
Countries around the world, from France, to Chile, to Singapore have created visas aimed at attracting promising entrepreneurs and job creators. Despite concerns about meager job creation and business growth, however, the United States has not taken a similar step, endangering our position in the global race for talent. This situation was made worse in 2017 when the administration took the first steps to kill the International Entrepreneur Rule, a measure that would have allowed entrepreneurs with outside funding to remain in the country for 2.5 years to establish their businesses.
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