Immigration and Economic Competitiveness

Immigrant populations can be valuable assets to communities. This post from The Atlantic looks at how different countries' openness to immigrants benefits their economic development.

1 minute read

April 29, 2011, 6:00 AM PDT

By Nate Berg

In this analysis, Richard Florida finds that nations that are more friendly to immigrants have better economic competitiveness.

"Immigrants are, in fact, key to economic growth and development, especially in our high-tech industries. Immigrants "have started 52% of Silicon Valley's technology companies and contributed to more than 25% of our global patents, according to Vivek Wadhwa, who has extensively studied the subject. "They make up 24% of the U.S. science and engineering workforce holding bachelor's degrees and 47% of science and engineering workers who have Ph.Ds." This is what venture capitalist John Doerr was talking about when he told an interviewer at the Web 2.0 Summit that America should "staple a green card to the diploma" of any immigrant who gets a degree in engineering."

FULL STORY: The Melting Pot That Isn't: Why America Needs Better Immigration

Tuesday, April 19, 2011 in The Atlantic

Community / Economic Development Social / Demographics World Immigration Competitiveness

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