A Proposal Regarding High Tech Immigrants to the US

The topic of H-1B visa's has always been a hot one.  In the current economic climate there are plenty of American tech workers looking for work and therefore this special visa program is under increasing scrutiny.  I have many friends and associates and family members who have either lost jobs or found themselves in positions they would not prefer due to the current economic meltdown and my bias is to side with them on this.  We need to rethink the nation's objectives regarding the H-1B program (you can read more on the H-1B visa program, including criticisms, at wikipedia).

But there are some other dimensions of job creation and the high tech ecosystem workforce related to immigration that we should consider. 

For example, consider the relevance of trends captured by the NSF and presented by the Computing Research Association on PhD degrees by Citizenship:  

• Most computer science PhD's in the US are being awarded to non-US Citizens. In 1993 about 50% of computer science PhD's were going to non-US Citizens.  By 2005 it was at over 60%.  And the trend is towards increasing amounts from overseas. 
• Of those, most possess temporary visas.  In 2005, 90% of the non-US Citizen PhD degree students were on temporary visas.  Their intent is to go right back home with their new degree.

Before addressing the above, here are a few other facts I think are relevant to the economy and jobs:

A team of researchers at Harvard led by Vivek Wadhwa have assessed the educational backgrounds and career trajectories of immigrant entrepreneurs in an attempt to draw conclusions relevant to enhancing the competitieness of the US economy.  Their report, titled "Education, Entrepreneurship and Immigration: America's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs" provides several interesting conclusions.  The following is from the report abstract:

Census data show that the immigrants who are most likely to start engineering and technology businesses - from India, the UK, China, Taiwan, Japan, and Germany - are better educated than their native-born counterparts. Our research shows that these company founders are also better-educated than the norm in their respective immigrant groups. In fact, 96 percent of all immigrant entrepreneurs involved in engineering and technology in our study have completed a bachelor's degree, and 74 percent hold master's or PhD degrees. The great majority (75 percent) of their highest degrees are in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics-related fields.

Immigrant founders were educated in a diverse set of universities in their home countries and across the United States. No single U.S. institution stands out as a source of immigrant founders. Similarly, those who received their undergraduate degrees in India or China graduated from a diverse assortment of institutions. Even the famed Indian Institutes of Technology educated only 15 percent of Indian company founders.

More than half of the foreign-born founders of U.S. technology and engineering businesses initially came to the United States to study. Very few came with the sole purpose of starting a company.

They typically founded companies after working and residing in America for an average of thirteen years. Immigrant entrepreneurs are concentrated in the nation's leading technology centers. The regions with the largest immigrant populations also tend to have the greatest number of technology startups.

The report also captures the fact that immigrants have founded and led over half of all Silicon Valley start-ups in the past decade.  These American companies employed more than 450,000 workers. 

What does this mean?  It means, among other things, that more immigrants in the high tech world can mean more job creation.

Some suggestions for how to enhance the innovation engines of Silicon Valley were captured in a Washington Post editorial written by LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman titled "Let Our Start-Ups Bail Us Out" 

Hoffman's recommendations for optimizing econmic recovery include: 1) Encourage small businesses with loans, 2) welcome foreign innovators but smartly tax and incent companies and enhance US education programs, and 3) Match VC and angel investment funds.  

Based on the computer science PhD figures I mention above I would like to add one additional proposal to the mix.  I would like the US Congress to pass a law that allows any person granted a PhD in sciences (including computer science) to be granted immediate US citizenship.

I expect, of course, that the law would require attachment to the principles of our Constitution and favorable disposition towards the United States, just like other paths to Naturalizaiton.   But the point of this law is fast-track, dramatically, the granting of citizenship for anyone who completes an advanced science PhD in the US.  

Another alternative to consider would be a law granting fast track US Citizenship to anyone from any country who has a PhD in advance science from any recognized, accredited institute of higher learning.  This approach might be a bit more controversial, but it might generate a great flood of innovative thinkers and could help ensure our country maintains its innovative edge well into the future.

Any thoughts?