Blog: Immigration

Earlier this month, Barack Obama released his plan for technology policy at a speech at Google. Larry Lessig immediately endorsed it, and Public Knowledge had lots of praise. Lessig, PK founder Gigi Sohn, and many Silicon Valley executives have been advising Obama, and their positive influence is clear on the plan.

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One of the biggest factors in the United States' success, particularly in the second half of the twentieth century, was its scientists and its universities. The most talented people from around the world, particularly from India, Iran, and the countries of east Asia, came to the US for college and graduate programs, then went on to make significant discoveries or form the backbone of successful and innovative companies.

The brain drain is slowing regardless, as India and China in particular foster public policy to nurture their native scientists without sending them permanently overseas. But as Richard Florida writes, we are doing a lot to hasten the loss of one of our greatest assets, thanks in particular to the Bush Administration.

The altered flow of talent is already beginning to show signs of crimping the scientific process. "We can't hold scientific meetings here [in the United States] anymore because foreign scientists can't get visas," a top oceanographer at the University of California at San Diego recently told me. The same is true of graduate students, the people who do the legwork of scientific research and are the source of many powerful ideas. The graduate students I have taught at several major universities -- Ohio State, Harvard, MIT, Carnegie Mellon -- have always been among the first to point out the benefits of studying and doing research in the United States. But their impressions have changed dramatically over the past year. They now complain of being hounded by the immigration agencies as potential threats to security, and that America is abandoning its standing as an open society. Many are thinking of leaving for foreign schools, and they tell me that their friends and colleagues back home are no longer interested in coming to the United States for their education but are actively seeking out universities in Canada, Europe, and elsewhere.

Richard Florida also wrote a fantastic book, The Rise of the Creative Class. It investigates why certain cities (like San Francisco) are economically successful while others (like Pittsburgh) struggle even though they have a labor pool, industry, infrastructure, and other classic economic necessities. He identified three primary factors: high tech, "street-level" culture like jazz cafes and comedy clubs, and tolerance of diversity, particularly of gays. In the Washington Monthly article, he continues:

Recently my colleague Irene Tinagli of Carnegie Mellon and I have applied the same analysis to northern Europe, and the findings are startling. The playing field is much more level than you might think. Sweden tops the United States on this measure, with Finland, the Netherlands, and Denmark close behind. The United Kingdom and Belgium are also doing well. And most of these countries, especially Ireland, are becoming more creatively competitive at a faster rate than the United States.

Though the data are not as perfect at the metropolitan level, other cities are also beating us for fresh new talent, diversity, and brainpower. Vancouver and Toronto are set to take off: Both city-regions have a higher concentration of immigrants than New York, Miami, or Los Angeles. So too are Sydney and Melbourne. As creative centers, they would rank alongside Washington, D.C. and New York City. Many of these places also offer such further inducements as spectacular waterfronts, beautiful countryside, and great outdoor life. They're safe. They're rarely at war. These cities are becoming the global equivalents of Boston or San Francisco, transforming themselves from small, obscure places to creative hotbeds that draw talent from all over--including your city and mine.

However we might screw up the federal budget or the tax code, we can eventually fix it. It takes a lot longer to build the demographics necessary for innovative research and entrepreneurship. I don't begrudge other countries their opportunities to have some high tech success as well. But if we stop being a good place to come earn a graduate degree and start a business, the next economic boom might completely bypass America.