America must be strong, powerful, rich — and lead the world in technology and science.
But just what makes a nation powerful, strong, and rich? Centuries ago, the answer might have been mines of gold or silver. Later, coal to fire the engines of warships and factories. Then oil for the same reasons. In a word: resources.
Today, resources are still the source of a nation’s wealth, but our greatest resource is talent and human capital. Trained minds and competence are the new gold and silver, coal and oil.
Today, we need not sacrifice blood and treasure on conquests of resources abroad. Instead, we can mine the best minds of the world by importing them, and simultaneously, cultivating and enriching the best minds here at home.
Unless the government foolishly pushes talented people and their families away.
I doubt that in the past there was a political lobby against accumulating gold and silver. But, oddly, today there is a lobby against importing talent into the United States.
Some senators actually urged the administration to halt all new guest worker visas for 60 days and to limit the issuance of visas strictly until unemployment returns to normal levels. Programs in question include H-1B and H-2B visas as well as the Optional Practical Training Program. Other senators rightly argue, however, that these temporary work visas will lead to economic recovery.
In 2019, we know that nearly half (223) of all American Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants and their children. Foreign-born individuals founded 101 of these companies, while 122 were founded by the children of immigrants.
In 2016, 51%, or 44 out of 87, of America’s $1 billion startup companies yet to go public had at least one immigrant founder and created about 760 jobs per company.
But those are just numbers. Intel was founded by Andrew Grove from Hungary; eBay, by Pierre Omidyar from France; Google co-founded by Sergey Brin from Russia; and Instagram co-founded by Mike Krieger from Brazil.
We should never stop the flow of talent into America. We want the innovative companies of the future to be founded on American soil, not abroad. We should not erect barriers to prevent future founders from coming to America to enrich our country.
If highly productive workers can no longer work in the U.S., the U.S. economy as a whole is worse off.
Nonimmigrant visas for high-skilled guest workers are known as H-1B visas. H-1B workers create new products and drive American wages up. IT workers on H-1B visas from India alone increased the wages of American workers by $431 million in 2010. Efforts to ban or restrict these workers are misguided. A better approach to reforming guest worker visas would be to scale back existing regulations that prevent guest workers from starting businesses and moving between jobs.
The coronavirus has not hit all industries equally. Coronavirus-related job losses in the U.S. are overwhelmingly concentrated in leisure and hospitality. Meanwhile, the tech industry, the most common employer of H-1B workers, has about 910,000 unfilled American tech jobs. Digital conference apps, social media companies, and digital marketplaces have seen soaring profits in recent months, and there is no shortage of jobs to meet the rising demand for tech products. Arbitrary restrictions on hiring will only hamper our national recovery.
H-1B visa holders disproportionately work in STEM fields and hold advanced degrees. They patent at double the rate of native-born Americans and account for 25-30% of total American patents. High patenting rates are a proxy of productivity at the national level; as we restart the economy, we should be eager to import innovation.
H-2B visas, which permit seasonal nonagricultural guest workers, can only be obtained when there are not enough American workers capable of performing the job; H-2B workers do not compete with Americans for employment opportunities. A blanket suspension would only impede the hiring and recovery process for American businesses.
For the same reasons, we should not suspend the Optional Practical Training Program, which allows foreign-born recent graduates to work in the United States for one to three years. This would force skilled and highly educated individuals to take their talents elsewhere while the American economy suffers. Daniel Di Martino notes that a 60% reduction of the OPT Program would result in a loss of 255,000 American jobs over the next decade, along with a decrease in wages.
The premise of the Senate proposal is that employment is a zero-sum game; when a foreign-born worker takes a job, an American loses an opportunity. In reality, highly skilled guest workers create jobs and increase wages across the board.
Talent, no matter its origin, creates increased opportunities for all Americans.
Grover Norquist is president of Americans for Tax Reform.
