- More than one-third of U.S. innovators were born outside the country, even though foreign-born people make up just 13.5% of all U.S. residents, according to a recent survey.
- JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES
Popular culture portrays innovators in the U.S. as young college dropouts. A more accurate description is older, well-educated immigrants, according to a new study.
More than one-third of the U.S.-based innovators – scientists and engineers responsible for the advances that drive tech – were born outside the country, according to recent a survey of about 900 patent holders and award-winning scientists in the U.S., conducted by Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, a nonpartisan Washington, D.C., think tank. That represents a disproportionately high number of foreigners, since foreign-born people make up 13.5% of all U.S. residents, the study says.
“We are dependent on immigrants with science and technology expertise,” says Robert Atkinson, an author of the report and president of the foundation. “They are making it possible for U.S. companies and foreign companies in the U.S. to gain market share and hire more scientists and engineers.”
The tech industry, where many of the innovators find a home, has become a major defender of foreign workers in the U.S. Tech companies see these employees as vital to their success because they are well-qualified and fill vacant roles.
Fwd.us, an immigration lobbying group founded by tech executives including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Drew Houston, chief executive of Dropbox Inc., has called for more high-skilled workers to be able to work in the U.S., going against proposals to curtail work visas from presidential candidates including Donald Trump. Other Silicon Valley executives are speaking out against a new visa-waiver law that would make it harder for some foreigners to travel to the U.S., impacting populations represented in the tech industry.
While some view immigration as a zero-sum game, where an immigrant with a U.S. job in science or technology means one less American in that position, Mr. Atkinson says the U.S. does not have enough home-grown technical graduates to fill the available job openings.
Part of the reason immigrants make up such a large portion of U.S. innovators compared with other industries is because science is so transferable from country to country, the studies’ authors say. While legal theory and even medical certificates vary from one country to the next, the practice of studying science remains substantially the same as people move across borders.
The main difference between U.S.-born and foreign-born innovators in the U.S. has to do with education. Two-thirds of innovators from abroad hold a Ph.D. in science or technology, while about half of innovators in general possess a Ph.D.
Meanwhile, the median age of innovators across the board is in their late 40s. “People may think technological innovation is driven by precocious college dropouts at startup companies like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg,” says Adams Nager, the study’s lead author, referring to the founders of Microsoft and Facebook. “In reality, America’s innovators are far more likely to be immigrants with advanced degrees who have paid their dues through years of work in large companies.”
Related reading:
What Happened to the Breakout Startup?
Starting a Business is Easy (for Harvard Business Grads)
Does Immigration Suppress Wages? It’s Not So Simple
Who Is Coming to America? Increasingly, Chinese Students and Indian 20-Somethings
from Real Time Economics http://ift.tt/1RnUIZe
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