Only 1 in 20 people on earth live in America. But Americans won 4 of 11 Nobel prizes this year. Last year, it was 8 of 9. Many of those American laureates are immigrants. Today, about 1 in 8 Americans are foreign-born, but 1 in 4 American Nobel laureates since 1901 are foreign-born. Immigrants, it seems, are chronic overachievers. America would benefit by letting more in.
A third of Silicon Valley's scientists and engineers are immigrants. Forty percent of Ph.D. scientists working in the U.S. are foreign-born. They are sources of innovation, progress, and -- not to be ignored -- jobs. If our immigration laws allowed more high-skilled workers into the country, the result would be faster growth and higher employment.
America has a long waiting list of eager high-skilled immigrants. Some of them may be future Nobel laureates.
But current immigration laws are keeping them out the country. The H-1B visa for skilled immigrants is capped at 85,000. Demand is far higher than that in most years. In non-recession years, those 85,000 spots are typically filled in a single day.
The quota on highly skilled immigrants is economically costly. Genius-level intellects are missing out on the chance to flower at the world's best universities. They're also missing out on one of the world's best entrepreneurial environments. The world is missing out on their lost achievements. And Americans are missing out on cutting-edge jobs in high-tech fields. Consumers lose out on products that are never invented.
A 2005 World Bank study found that foreign graduate students working in the United States file an enormous number of patents. A quarter of international patents filed from the U.S. in 2006 named a non-U.S. citizen working in the U.S. as the inventor or co-inventor. Immigrants -- some of whom our immigration bureaucracy refuses to recognize -- are responsible for an outsized portion of today's rapid technological advancement.
Fortunately for America, some of these high achievers are willing to break the law to be here. According to the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Immigration Statistics, there are almost 300,000 illegal Indian immigrants in the U.S. Many of them arrived here on H-1B or student visas and have overstayed their legal residency in hopes of getting a green card.
The non-partisan National Foundation for American Policy reports that for every H-1B visa issued, U.S. technology firms increase their employment by five workers. It is a remarkable policy failure that almost 300,000 Indian immigrants live in legal limbo. They should be allowed to flex their entrepreneurial muscle without fear of being deported.
And that's just India. There are millions of talented individuals from Asia, Europe, and elsewhere who could do wonders for America's ailing economy, if the law would let them. A co-winner of this year's chemistry Nobel, Ei-ichi Negishi, is an immigrant from Japan. How many like him want to come here, but can't?
This year's physics Nobel laureates, Andre Geim and Konstantin Novosolev, emigrated from Russia to the UK. What if they had come to the U.S. instead?
Most immigrants to the United States have lower skills than a potential Nobel Prize winner. But policy makers cannot look into the future and figure out who will win a Nobel Prize and who will be average. Immigration restrictions make it less likely for Americans to win that prize. Immigrants are less likely to find a country where they could intellectually flourish. That is the world's loss.
The number of Nobel-caliber intellects who have lost their opportunity to do research in this country is unknown. What is known is that the U.S. government has kept out millions of the most inventive, brilliant, and entrepreneurial people in the world for no good reason.
Letter to the Editor
Ryan Young is the Competitive Enterprise Institute's Warren T. Brookes Journalism Fellow.
Alex Nowrasteh is a policy analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.
Perhaps it's better for the ruling class to let the illiterate in because they know they are more easily duped.
In essence, that's our current immigration policy.
We don't employ the Engineers and Scientists we graduate. It has become especially acute in Computer Science. The H1-B program is much of the problem.
If we employed the entire glob of Hard Science, Engineering, and Computer Science grads we have I would be more sympathetic to Young' s and Nowrasteh's argument. But we don't and there argument is nothing but shilling for the companies that are glad to throw over our grads to get some H1-B slave who lives in fear of his/her employer. H1-Bs are some of the most mistreated imported labor we have. The companies that import them should be ashamed of themselves. Instead, they simply argue for more corporate welfare in kind.
I agree 100%. I work as a software engineer and I can tell you that the H1-B's I have worked with are not going to be winning any Nobel prizes. They were brought in by companies looking to pay less, plain and simple. If there were truly a shortage of tech workers training budgets would be high as companies would be looking to fill positions with trainees. They aren't.
Most of the H1-B's are more similar to illegals who are taking construction jobs from American citizens. They are just being brought in to a different sector of the economy. They truly talented can still come to this country. The CEO's of tech companies who say otherwise are blowing smoke.
I am no protectionist either, I believe there can be sensible immigration policies to fill voids in certain fields. In technology and science, there is no void. Jobs are going overseas and young grads can't find work. We don't need foreign workers here to fill those non-existent jobs.
A stupid man doesn't question authority he only fears and obeys it. That is why the ruling elites along with their willing enablers within the Department of Education are producing obedient morons, who know just enough to be come docile and compliant workers. That is the problem that the elites are having now. There is still enough of us left who received a fairly decent government education early on, that enables us to discern bull squeeze from horse squeeze. And were not afraid to speak up and act out. INS is broke. It has been politically jerry rigged for so long that the system will admit an illiterate diseased peasant from the Southern Hemisphere and deny a nuclear physicist from India. Sounds like we should set our priorities don't you think? The Left will choose the peasant each and every time because he will not question the Liberal dogma, he will only obey it, and not question it. The Nuclear Physicist is perceived as a threat to Liberalism because at least from India which is by and large Conservative.
Where will all our Future Nobel Laureate Leaf Blowers and Lawn Rakers come from ?
From this article: "Fortunately for America, some of these high achievers are willing to break the law to be here. According to the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Immigration Statistics, there are almost 300,000 illegal Indian immigrants in the U.S." Sorry, but this is irresponsible advocacy of illegal activity.
Further, the National Foundation for American Policy which these authors cite is a group consisting basically of one man - Stuart Anderson - who has done nothing but work in politics pushing pro-high-immigration policies all is career. He advocates for higher immigration levels for unskilled labor and "family unification" as well as near-open borders for skilled immigrants and temporary workers. Check out his "Four Steps to Fix Immigration" in Forbes:
http://www.forbes.com/2010/05/.....erson.html
As far as the high immigration vs. lower and smarter immigration debate goes, the National Foundation for American Policy is about as non-partisan as Nancy Pelosi is non-partisan, and its "studies" reflect that. Similarly with the two authors of this article: both from the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
From this article: "Most immigrants to the United States have lower skills than a potential Nobel Prize winner. But policy makers cannot look into the future and figure out who will win a Nobel Prize and who will be average. Immigration restrictions make it less likely for Americans to win that prize."
Okay, so let's eliminate all immigration quotas and let the whole world into the U.S., just to ensure that we don't miss out on any Nobel prize-winners. Considering how most of Asia seems to want to immigrate here, my estimates of U.S. population growth in that case go something like this:
2020: 450,000 2030: 700,000 2040: 1 billion 2050: ???
This article is one of the silliest things I've ever read.
Irresponsible advocacy of an illegal activity? I'm glad you're going to stand strong defending Obamacare as it comes online over the next couple o years.
Also, your fear mongering about population growth might make this post more appetizing for NARAL or another anti-human pro abortion website. Conservatives generally believe that more people = better.
Your numbers do not hold up to reality. The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) in the US is about 2.0 children per female. Without immigrants the TFR is about 1.7 children per female. The peak TFR in the US occured during the early 1960s (3.6 children per female). It began to decline rapidly in the late 60s before hitting a nadir of 1.5 in the 1970s. It did rise during the 1990s and early 2000s (2.2 in 2003) before declining again. The rise in the 1990s and early 2000s can be attributed to immigrants (mainly illegal).
But this trend is global. The Global TFR in 1970 was 5.6 per female. Today it is 2.5 per female. In Mexico and Central America birth rates are spirally downward. The TFR for Mexico was about 5.0 children per female in 1978. Today, it is 2.6 per female.
For a nation to have a stable population, it must have a TFR of 2.1 children per female. The population of the US is approximately 300 million souls. With a TFR of 2.1 its population will be 300 million in 2100. The only means a nation can grow its population with a TFR below 2.1 is immigration. If a nation refuses to reproduce it forfeits its future. The US essientally has refused to reproduce for 1 and a half generations. It has relied on the fecund recent immigrant to grow its population. Traditionally it took 1 to 2 generations of immigrants to slow down thier fertility. However, it is taking less than half a generation for our Asian, Hispanic, and African immigrants to absorb the bad habits of thier host nation. And now we can't even rely on immigration, as Mexico, Central and South America will have fewer immigrants to offer up.
The future will rely on those nations that actually will have large young populations. Count out North America, Europe, Russia, Japan, and North Africa. All of the aforementioned regions have TFRs that are or will drop below 2.1 during the next decade. Even Iran, and Turkey have falling birth rates.
No, over-population was never a problem. An aging and dwindling population is. The only region or state in the US with healthy fertility rates are not populated with Hispanic, Catholic, or Muslim immigrants. Utah is filled with Mormons, and Utah has a TFR of almost 5.0 children per female. The lowest, not surprsingly is New England, where one out of every 2 conception ends in abortion. New England and not Florida has the largest concentration of the aging. The median age in New England is the oldest in the nation.
I guess winning Nobel prizes is a job that most Americans won't do. Joe Guzzardi on vdare.com has an excellent refutation of the nonsense expounded in this piece.
So excellent you won't even post the link? The argument for not letting in highly skilled people, who excel at these subjects is weak.
And the argument isn't that "Americans won't do them," it's that we are all better off having as many goods and services offered at the lowest price possible. That's prosperity.
You are assuming that H1-B's are all highly skilled and are filling jobs because no American workers are available. TOTALLY. FALSE. ASSUMPTION.
For an alternate view, rebuttal check these websites!
These analysts need to study it too! . Most of the "LAME-STREAM" media won't touch these issues see their Corporate Leaders feed on Cheap (professional) Labor too HUH? It all appears to be connected. The Corporate media, Corporate propagandists therefore giving a free pass in:
Screwing the American worker!!!!
LET ME OFFER THIS INFO
http://www.american-engineers-for-america.info
There dozen more links but then this website , comments page won't let me post them You'll have to find them out .
.. or maybe the readers can add them ??
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