In 2000, the United States was the leading country containing more than 10 million highly skilled immigrants, which was an increase of over 5 million highly skilled immigrants from 1990, followed by Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, and Germany. Countries and regions on a global scale have been eager to draw highly skilled immigrants because of their proficiency in promoting innovation and boosting economic growth. And there is this constant competition between countries contending to get the best talented prospects to improve their global competitiveness. The development of Silicon Valley is a prime example of how immigrants can have a positive impact on society. By attracting the most talented and educated immigrants, Silicon Valley …show more content…
has become one of the most technologically innovative regions in the world, hosting companies such as: Apple, Ebay, Facebook, and Google. Now that we are beginning to understand the level of education one must possess to be considered a highly skilled immigrant, we can continue further in recognizing some of the key roles they play in the development of Silicon Valley. The highly skilled immigrants Silicon Valley has developed play the roles of 1) being exceedingly skillful and cultivated workers that have migrated in massive groups, 2) pioneering entrepreneurs, and 3) posing as a bridge between host and home regions. These roles have enabled these immigrants to bring prosperity and increasing development into the region. By taking a closer look at some of the roles high skilled immigrants possess, we can gain a better understanding of how they have contributed to the fruitful advancement of Silicon Valley. One of the roles highly skilled immigrants partake in is that they migrate in large clusters, which contain individuals who bring their professional skills and well educated knowledge to their new place of employment in the host country. Due to the professionalism and talent these immigrants bring, they have helped Silicon Valley grow into being known as the technological hub of the United States. The developmental growth and recognition of Silicon Valley as a technological giant would have been incredibly difficult to achieve without the immense migration of foreign immigrant engineers and scientists. According to Annalee Saxenian, in 1990, about over thirty percent of engineers and scientists working in the fields of information and communication technology, and other technological advanced industries in Silicon Valley were from foreign countries. By 2000, there was a percentage increase showing that highly skilled immigrants consisted of over fifty percent of the Silicon Valley labor force population contributing to the high tech industries. The majority of them were of Asian origin. Of the foreign immigrant scientists and engineers living in the Silicon Valley from 1985 to 2000, about thirty-seven percent came from China and twenty percent came from India. Now, we can begin to see a noticeable correlation between the tremendous amounts of migration of highly skilled immigrants into Silicon Valley and the vast amounts of technological innovations and growth in the region. The second role that highly skilled immigrants play is that of an entrepreneur. Not only are immigrants employees in the new regions they’ve migrated to, but their entrepreneurial and innovative tendencies lead many of them to open their own businesses and create jobs around them. Of the 11,443 companies established in Silicon Valley between 1980 and 1998, 2775 (24%) of those companies were generated by Chinese and Indians. These innovative and entrepreneurial immigrants and their companies produced $16.8 billion in sales as well as creating 58,282 jobs. Evidently, these immigrant entrepreneurs are generating a significant inflow of new jobs and revenue. Many of these new immigrant produced companies are also entering larger markets that help generate large profits and investments as well as creating groundbreaking services, products, and technologies, which further stimulate innovation. In addition, as these immigrant entrepreneurs reach high levels of success and revenue they then become venture capitalists. As venture capitalists, these immigrant entrepreneurs often support the younger up and coming immigrants in establishing their own businesses. Farlie Roberts, Chair of Economics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, states in his report, Immigration and Entrepreneurship, “They distribute their knowledge and expertise of launching a business to the next wave of migrating immigrants and familiarize them to distributors, clients, attorneys, and other business partners. These networks of people and companies not only support their own people but also enhance the global competitiveness of the region.” Through the evidence being provided, highly skilled immigrants who go on to become entrepreneurs are proving to be a strong resource that enables Silicon Valley to help the United States compete in international competition and also help alleviate labor shortages. One may argue that the first and second roles highly skilled immigrants participate in only provide beneficial effects on a small scale in the region they reside in.
But there is a third role that immigrants partake in, which complements the additional two roles and allows them to provide a huge contribution to the growth in Silicon Valley where their effects are felt on a global scale. These immigrants not only establish deep networks within the fabric of Silicon Valley and inside their companies, but they can also act as a bridge between their hosting regions and home countries. By establishing a link between both visiting and home sectors, it enables these immigrants to reinforce the international network of societies, commerce, advanced technology, knowledge, and new innovations. In his article titled Why Silicon Valley Expert Entrepreneurs Return Home, Vivek Wadhwa notes that “there has been a rapid growth in the amount of highly-skilled immigrants returning home, particularly those that had come from Israel and Taiwan in the 1990s, and Chinese and Indians from 2000 through the oncoming years.” In returning back home, they transported their newfound knowledge of Silicon Valley’s technologies, networks, and business models to their countries. Their newly attained knowledge and attitudes allowed these highly skilled immigrants to contribute to the progression of innovative, and technologically sound networks in their home regions. By establishing connections between …show more content…
regions such as Silicon Valley and their home countries, it allowed both areas to develop well-established partnerships. Specific regions listed by Vivek Wadhwa, such as Hsinchu in Taiwan, Beijing in China, and Bangalore in India have all been successful in establishing trust and partnering relationships with Silicon Valley. These relationships have allowed Silicon Valley to attract the most talented and knowledgeable individuals around the world who have continued to stimulate new pioneering concepts to the region. With highly-skilled immigrants acting as a link between Silicon Valley and their home countries, the substantial amount of knowledge that is being circulated becomes significant in allowing Silicon Valley to tap into the resources that other countries have to offer.
As a result, there is a dynamic collaborative flow of skilled migration that occurs between Silicon Valley, China, India, and other countries. The distributing and receiving countries then begin to see a rapid expansion in the clusters of highly skilled individuals. Through this collaborative flow of highly skilled immigrants a network of advanced technologies becomes extensive and foundationally sound. However, in a Fox news interview with Schulte Todd, President of FWD.us and Max Levchin, PayPal co-founder, they claim that this circulation of highly knowledgeable and talented individuals is having a negative impact on the United States. Because the U.S. has unorganized immigration policies, it is losing immigrants to other countries and thus losing talented individuals who can help its country prosper. The interview discusses how this passage and exchange of information is prompting a momentous change in worldwide competition and the global political and economic order. Thus, immigration reform is an extremely important focus for Silicon Valley due to the fact that countries are beginning to be aware of the benefits that these highly skilled immigrants provide and are starting to improve their immigration
policies to allow more of them into their country. As countries outside of the United States begin to take advantage of the immigrants that leave Silicon Valley due to expiring temporary visas, it will begin to drain the competitive edge Silicon Valley and its companies have over the rest of the world. Then, regions around the world will be able to replicate the formula of Silicon Valley’s growing success. Thus, allowing other countries to emerge as competitors for motivating highly skilled immigrants to remain in their home countries rather than attempting to go back to the United States. The emergence of new competition exists because they are taking away the main resource that makes Silicon Valley the thriving society that it is, which is its smart, highly skilled immigrants. The departure of skillful and educated immigrants who go back to their own or other developing countries, is continuing to cause serious concern. The next section will examine the topic that although immigrants have been beneficial for Silicon Valley and the United States, the manner in which the country implements immigration policies are hindering the nation’s growth. Is Immigration Slowing Down? As we begin to understand how high skilled immigrants are seen as a valuable resource, countries around the world are doing their best to attract the most talented to work for them. A highly important element for any country is becoming an appealing location for immigrants. By doing so, it provides an opportunity for countries to capitalize on attracting high skilled immigrants who are a valuable national resource. Amir Belson, an Isreal immigrant and founder of a company involved in medical device research and development in Silicon Valley called Zipline Medical, states, “studies done by the Kuaffman foundation have shown that the most appealing destination with the best resources and tools for innovation for high skilled tech workers is located in the United States in Silicon Valley.” By attracting high skilled immigrants to work in your country you are allowing them to contribute in a spill-over effect that can benefit everyone in the area through the wages they earn, the money they spend, the taxes they pay and countless other positive factors. However, in recent American history, there are less startups being established by immigrants compared to 10 years ago. The effects of the decrease in startups in Silicon Valley have been closely noted, as the percentage of immigrant founded startups dropped from 53.4 percent to 43.0 percent between 2005 and 2012. With the drop in immigrant startups we begin to notice that the lack of enough skilled workers and entrepreneurs can deter the expansion and innovation by existing firms and industries and the development of new ones. The period of extraordinary expansion of immigrant led entrepreneurship in the United States, which characterized the 1980s and 1990s, has been falling in recent years. Today, the growth rate of immigrant founded companies nationwide, at 24.3 percent, has plateaued. The reasoning for the decrease nationwide and in Silicon Valley is stated in Francis Siciliano’s study “Then and Now: America's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs, Part VII.," “as high skilled workers enter as temporary workers with H-1B visas, the number of visas issued has fallen from 195,000 in 2000 to the current level of 65,000 per year.” Consequently, with the decrease in H-1B visas being given to high skilled immigrants, it has lessened the chances of places like Silicon Valley to continue expanding due to the fact that less high skilled workers and entrepreneurs are allowed into the country. Unfortunately, due to the implementation of stricter immigration policies, the nation prevents talented minds from continuing to help the country grow. Furthermore, Steven Overly states in his Washington Post article From Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley, a Debate Over Highly Skilled Immigrants that “A primary cause of this problem is America’s restrictive immigration policies that are preventing high skilled immigrants from establishing themselves in Silicon Valley.” Thus, if the United States continues to decrease the amount of visas allowed and create stricter immigration policies, there can be further detrimental effects to the success of flourishing high tech locations such as Silicon Valley.
Have you been searching for a book that will inspire you, but just can’t seem to find one? Well your prayers have been answered, because I have the book for you. The Immigrant Advantage by Claudia Kolker will do the job. The novel was published in 2011 by Free Press. Claudia Kolker is an award-winning journalist, who has written for The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Economist, and The Oprah Magazine.
But First, Training Foreign Replacements” by Julia Preston covers only a few relevant topics dealing with international marketing. The main topic covered in the article reveals to be the main concern dealing with outsourcing. Outsourcing is a subcontracting process to a third-party company. According to our text Global Marketing, outsourcing is defined more specifically as the "shifting jobs or work assignments to another company to cut costs. When the work moves abroad to a low-wage country such as India or China" (Keegan & Green). Outsourcing reveals to be rather complex, impacting companies and businesses in different ways, both positively and negatively. The article mainly focuses on the issue of outsourcing in terms of the temporary visas known as H-1B, which are visas for immigrants that possess advanced science or computer skills. The article discusses how the company outsources from a firm based in India in order “to be more current and nimble” and “reduce costs when possible due to wage weaknesses in wage regulations” (Preston, Web). On the other hand, outsourcing negatively affects the Disney employees, or cast members, by causing American workers to lose their jobs or career opportunities and be replaced by temporary visa highly skilled technical immigrants for lower pay. Outsourcing is sometimes referred to as
In this article, Semple explains to us the hardships of three immigrants. Mr. Sanchez, Zhang Yulong, and Kim Ki Chol. All immigrated from different places all over the world. Felix Sanchez de la Vega Guzman immigrated from Mexico and is now running a multi million dollar food manufacturing company. Zhang Yulong immigrated from China runs a $30-million-a-year cell phone accessories empire in New York. Last but not least it describes the journey of Kim Ki Chol, an immigrant from South Korea who
The United States of America has the largest foreign-born population in the world. With nearly thirteen percent of the total population being foreign-born, one may find it hard to imagine an immigrant-free country (U.S. Bureau of the Census). Immigration has been an integral part of the United States’ overall success and the country’s economy since it was established and without it, would have never been founded at all. Although there are some negative issues associated with immigration and many native-born Americans believe to be more of a problem than a solution, overall it actually has a positive effect. Immigrants in America, among other things, fill jobs where native-born Americans may not want to work or cannot work, they contribute to Social Services and Medicaid through taxes and they help provide the backbone of America, especially by working jobs that natives may have not even considered.
In America, there are many considerable companies created by immigrants during the height of immigration. During the early 1900s, the American Dream was in full swing and patriotism was found amongst most Americans. During this time, Americans had a sense of vivaciousness when talking about America and the economy. With the roaring 20s and significant economic growth in the 1910s, many non-natives flocked to America in search of a better life. However, as time went on and America’s economy started to adjust, the American Dream and patriotism of indigenous Americans also evolved. Bogged down with the aftermath of the Great Depression in the 1930s, second and third generation Americans fell out of love with America. Immigrants kept hope though,
Illegal immigration has many diverse effects on the United States economy. Some people argue that the negative outweigh the positive, but there is no doubt that immigrants do carry a critical role.
The numbers of immigrants to United States has risen from thousands to a record high of one million immigrants by the year 2008. The table below can represent this information
First, immigrants come to the U.S. to work and bring valuable skills which help grow the economy despite the negative views surrounding their part in the U.S. economy. Since the 2008-2009 recession the view on immigration and its effects on the economy has been more negative than positive (Peri, 2012). A study done by Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government found that about 50 percent of American adults believe that immigrants burden the country because they, “take jobs, housing, and healthcare”, while the other 50 percent believe that, “immigrants strengthen the country due to their hard work and talents” (Delener & Ventilato, 2008). Over the past decade, “over half of the increase in the U.S. labor force,… was the result of immigration-l...
“Bring on More Immigrant Entrepreneurs” is an article written by Shayan Zadeh, originally published in the Wall Street Journal on November 6, 2013. Zadeh insists that the American system for dealing with immigrants needs to change. Zadeh makes it known that the process is currently too complicated and long. This process ends up deterring skilled talent because of the difficulty to obtain visas and start businesses, as well as denying the opportunity for enormous economic growth.
Malanga, Steven. How Unskilled Immigrants Hurt Our Economy. 13 May 2006. The Manhattan Institute. 10 May 2010, .
Economically, immigrants greatly boost an economy by providing new job outlets, more money to companies, and reducing the unemployment rate. A large influx of immigrants will help many companies because of supply and demand, more people equals more needs to be provided. With the average immigrant worker working at lower wages, immigrants reduce the amount of money a company loses when paying their employees. A writer at The Fiscal Times connects this idea by claiming, “Without the immigrant labor, prices consumers pay for hotels and restaurants would be substantially higher (Furchgott-Roth).” Other than keeping vacations and dinners cheaper, immigration has yielded great results in the field of education. With a majority of immigrants relocating with their family or having a family in the new country, it is highly likely for them to send their offspring to school so that they can have a good education. This bodes well for the high school and/or college they attend because the children increase the graduation rate, which is one of many factors people use to determine how good a school is. Once acquiring a higher education, many of them will decide to open up their own business or wander into the job market. The former option has yielded excellent results for the United States, with immigrants owning almost one in five of the small businesses in America (Bass). The latter keeps a
Technology is unavoidable in our modern lifestyle. You wake up, you use technology; you use technology while cooking, while eating, while driving. While you’re lying in bed before you fall asleep, you use technology, technology wakes you up in the morning. Is all the technology around you good for you, or is it harmful to your health? Was our society healthier or safer before all the advancements? So many questions and concerns about all of the technology we crave, but there are very few people who know the answers. Technology affects all parts of human life. It can create jobs, motivate people to get active, and assist people in learning, but this does not balance out that there are dangers that follow the use of technology.
Immigration poses an ongoing debate in which people are becoming increasingly unsure as to whether immigrants are benefiting their society. This paper will examine three of the main benefits of immigration: the increase in diversity it provides, the rise in skills and labor and the benefits to the economy. Immigration leads to cross-cultural integration, therefore increasing ethnic variety. This increase in diversity is beneficial as it leads to improvements in society, as well as educational development. Increased immigration also means there are more skills and experts available to the hosting countries, as well as extra workers to take up jobs that need filling. Immigration also leads to improvements in the economy as taxes are paid and employment and wages increase.
Technology has more negative effects on today’s society than positive. Due to technology in the past few decades Canine Shock Collars have been increasingly popular. Students in school pay more attention to texting than they do their classes. Violent addictive video games have made their way into American homes. Parents encourage their children to not text as much, but them to face the problem of constant communication. The Internet gives the students easier ways to cheat in school, and reinforces laziness. Internet Porn gives every bored male a chance to look at the seediest film in the comfort of his own home. Technology has taken the innocence and mystery away from the American family.
Technology is one of life’s most impressive and incredible phenomena’s. The main reason being the shockingly high degree to which our society uses technology in our everyday lives. It occupies every single realm, affecting people both positively and negatively. There are so many different forms of technology but the two most often used are cell phones, and the internet/computers in general. Today’s younger generation was raised alongside technological development. Kids now a days learn how to operate computers and cell phones at a very early age, whether it be through their own technological possessions, a friend’s, or their parents. They grow up knowing how easily accessible technology is, and the endless amount of ways in which it can be used. This paper will be largely focused on the effects of technology on the younger generation because your childhood is when these effects have the largest impact. I am very aware of the subject because I am the younger generation. Aside from major effects on study and communication skills, there also exist the media’s effects on teen’s self-esteem and mental health. Maybe more importantly, there is our world’s growing problem of over priced and unnecessary consumerism. Over time, our society has created a very unhealthy form of reliance and dependency on technology as a whole. People essentially live through their devices. Cell phones are always with people making it nearly impossible to not be able to reach someone at anytime, day or night. In 2011, there were 2.4 trillion text messages sent, and 28,641 cell phone towers were added across the US. 1 We use our phones and Internet for directions, communication, information, self-diagnosis, games, movies, music, schoolwork, work, photos, shoppi...