Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and Founder of Facebook, is reportedly in the process of launching an independent political group to lobby for comprehensive immigration reform. Even though Silicon Valley is strongly associated with H1B visas, it is reported that Zuckerberg’s effort will be broader including possible citizenship for undocumented immigrants. This news has brought back the discussion about Immigration Policies into the forefront of online media – how it affects a nation, its economy and more importantly, due to Zuckerberg’s and Facebook’s association with entrepreneurship and innovation, one key topic of discussion is does immigration effect entrepreneurship and innovation in a nation.
Most of the online discussions and debates on this topic are centered on the immigration policies and directions of the U.S. government. This could be considered as a unique case primarily due to the historic significance of immigration policies to the development of the U.S. economy (currently the largest economy in the world) or this can be projected as a base scenario which will be observed or can be utilized in future in other rapidly developing nations. In either scenario there are several parameters for consideration when discussing the link between immigration and innovation. In this article we touch upon a few of these parameters and hope that this triggers an active discussion among ‘netizens’ in our comments section.
One key point raised by both groups of people – people for liberal immigration policies and people for stricter immigration policies – is the factor of employment generation. The group for stricter immigration policies argues that, by allowing skilled workers from other countries to come and work in the U.S., the current immigration policies are resulting in a reduction in the number of jobs available for local skilled workers thus increasing the unemployment rate of locals. On the other hand, the group for liberal immigration policies uses the statistics of the percentage of immigrants (compared to total number of immigrants) involved in startup and entrepreneurship activities and how this parameter is considerably higher than percentage of locals involved in similar activities to justify the projection that liberal immigration policies promote entrepreneurship which in turn generates employment.
The next critical factor considered during the discussion regarding immigration policies is its effect on research and development activities. The group for liberal immigration policies argues that due to highly skilled and qualified immigrants pursuing their higher studies and research in the U.S. there is a direct increase in the research and development parameters including the number of patents filed. Also, according to the 2003 National Survey of College Graduates the immigrants patent at double the native rate thus supporting the factor of increase in R&D activity. But the opposite group counters using two points – (i) this disproportion in the rate of patents can be explained by the immigrants disproportionately holding degrees in science and engineering where most of the patent activity is seen. (ii) There is very low positive spill-over effect of the immigrants on the inventors thus not having a long term sustainable benefit.
Entrepreneurship and Intellectual Property are two key components of an innovation ecosystem. Thus understanding the effects of Immigration policies on these two parameters will help us establish a relationship between these policies and an ecosystem promoting innovation – this will in-turn help design or customize the immigration policies to promote innovation in an economy. But it has to be remembered that the core goal of a government is not just to promote innovation but to promote overall development of the nation – thus the immigration policies and innovation parameters should be further linked to the development of the nation.
At the same time, in the current global economy the development of a nation is tightly linked to how it interacts with the other nations and their economies through international trade and policies. Thus we should also consider the effect of these immigration policies on international trade and international relations.