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and numerous barriers to residency in place for international students to stay after graduation, America's outdated immigration policy could allow other countries to out-compete us by attracting and keeping the best and brightest there and not here.
Three Ads You Won’t See During the Super Bowl, But You Should Still Watch
This Sunday, some of the biggest brands in the country will interrupt the bathroom breaks of more than one hundred million viewers with clever television ads. We thought we’d save the money and your bladders by sharing three ads in advance that demonstrate the impact immigrants have on important U.S. Read More
Bipartisan I-Squared Act Introduced to Reform Business Immigration System
On January 13, 2015, Senators Hatch (R-Utah), Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Rubio (R-Fla.), Coons (D-Del.), Flake (R-Ariz.), and Blumenthal (D-Conn.) introduced the Immigration Innovation (“I-Squared”) Act of 2015, a major immigration reform bill addressing the high-skilled and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) immigration programs. Similar to… Read More
Statement on Senators Jerry Moran and Mark Warner’s Startup Act to Encourage Business Creation and Growth
CONTACT Ryan Williams, New American Economy, [email protected] Following the re-introduction of Senators Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Mark Warner’s (D-VA) bill to attract and retain more foreign-born entrepreneurs and STEM graduates, New American Economy Chairman John Feinblatt issued the following statement: “Immigrant entrepreneurs are critical to the growth… Read More
Summit County, Breckenridge ski tourism might benefit from smarter visa laws
For international tourists, a weeklong ski vacation to Breckenridge begins months or even years before they set skis to snow. Take a family from Brazil: Before booking a room on Ski Hill Road, everyone in the family must first be approved for a nonimmigrant visa, commonly… Read More
Immigrant Founders Need Policy Reform To Keep Creating Tech Jobs
President Obama took executive action last November to further ease policies around skilled tech labor. However, our laws haven’t done much to help the foreign startup founders who create quite a few tech jobs here. A 2008 Kaufman Foundation study concluded that between 1995 and 2005, more than half of all Silicon Valley tech companies were… Read More
At last, sensible immigration reform may have a chance in Washington
Immigration reform has stalled because of ugly Republican politics and an insistence by the Democrats that it be all or nothing. This has taken a toll on the country’s economic growth and global competitiveness. Witness the rise of Chinese companies such as Alibaba and Xiaomi — which now have their… Read More
Bipartisan Senate bill eyes immigration reform for tech workers
A bipartisan team of senators lent a helping hand to the tech sector on Tuesday by introducing legislation to reform the immigration system for high-skilled workers. The bill, which was first introduced in 2013 but failed to move in Congress, would address a major demand of… Read More
The Most Entrepreneurial Group in America Wasn’t Born in America
Derek Cha arrived in America as a 12-year-old with his parents and three siblings. They came for familiar reasons: “In 1977, South Korea was a poor country,” Cha says. “My parents were looking for better opportunities and education for us.” After the family settled in California, his mother worked as… Read More
Other voices: Immigration fix should address vacant tech jobs in U.S.
When the topic is immigration, Democrats and Republicans alike continue to focus almost entirely on a single question: what to do about the millions of low-skill immigrants – mostly from Latin America – who are in the U.S. illegally. While this certainly needs to be addressed, the… Read More
Reddit cofounder: The next Google is one visa away from leaving U.S.
Antiquated visa policies could be the downfall of the U.S. tech boom. That’s the warning that Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian is sounding. “Although America leads the world right now, we’ve led the world in plenty of other industries before and seen that evaporate,” said Ohanian, who recently… 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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