Posts Tagged ‘new economy’

International Students Are Gold to Your Community

Friday, August 27th, 2010

I had a great time yesterday welcoming the incoming class of international students at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland.

I reminded the international students that they are GOLD to the colleges and communities that welcome them.

Unfortunately, many cities and states around the U.S. are unaware of the economic impac…t that international students bring to their community — and don’t do a good job in welcoming, conneting and integrating these international newcomers.

Yesterday we discussed the recent study that found that the number of international students studying in the U.S. is at its highest peak ever, over 670,000. These students and their dependents contribute over $17 billion per annum to the U.S. economy in tuition and living expenses.

More important, however, is the economic impact these global wunderkinds bring to their communities after they graduate —- in terms of innovation, entrepreneurship, advanced degrees, and global cultural and language skills.

Studies show:

* internationals are receiving U.S. patents at a 2:1 ratio compared to American-born.

* immigrants are starting businesses at nearly twice the rate of American-born.

* immigrants are more likely to have an advanced degree compared to American born (nearly 70% of the people who entered the fields of science and engineering from 1995 to 2006 were immigrants);

* over 50% of the companies in Silicon Valley were founded by an immigrant (25% of the tech companies nationwide)

* from 1990-2005, immigrants founded 1/4 of all venture-backed public companies (add a high tech label, and the percentage jumps to 40%)

Think of the New Economy rock star entrepreneurs and you’ll see immigrants everywhere: Sergey Brin (Google), Pierre Omidyar (eBay), Elon Musk (PayPal, Tesla Motors), Jerry Yang (Yahoo), Andy Grove (Intel), Vinod Khosla (Sun Microsytem), and the founders of companies like YouTube, LinkedIn, and many others.

This is not a new phenomenon — think of the immigrants who founded Dow Chemical, DuPont, Procter & Gamble, U.S. Steel (Carnegie Steel), Pfizer, and many other icons of American capitalism.

Millions of American jobs have been created by immigrants —- and many of these immigrant entrepreneurs first came to the U.S. to study at an American university. Over half ot the country’s immigrant tech entrepreneurs came to the U.S. to study at an American university

American universities are the magnet for the world’s best, brightest, and most entrepreneurial.

As our economy continues to struggle, let’s not forget this competitive advantage and do more to leverage it.

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Helping Immigrant Entrepreneurs Flourish

Friday, August 27th, 2010

I live in and love Cleveland — a once-great city that was part of the “silicon valley” of the late-18th/early-19th century industrial revolution.

Having just returned from Vancouver and Seattle, I reflected on what it takes for cities to be competitive, prosperous and vibrant in the 21st century.

100 years ago, the… rust belt cities of Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh led the world in industrial patents and the creation of game-changing companies. This is the land of Carnegie, Ford, Rockefeller, Firestone, Dow, and many other entrepreneurs who helped change the world.

Immigrants played a key role in the economic success of the Great Lakes region at the dawn of the 20th century.

Cities like Cleveland attracted folks from all over the world at that time —- 30% of the 1,000,000 population was foreign-born. Today, only about 5% of Cleveland’s population comes from abroad —- and the overall population has dropped below 400,000.

The exodus of people has been accompanied by a decline in innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit. Not good timing, as countries like China and India move-up on the value chain of a knowledge-based economy — in countries where acquisition of advanced education is a contact sport. (Only 6% of Greater Cleveland’s population holds an advanced degree, 5% in Detroit, and 20% in Seattle.)

The rust belt region needs to reboot.

To create its New Economy, it will need an army of entrepreneurs and innovators, ready to compete globally.

The only way to quickly build this army is by recruiting and attracting American migrants and immigrants. The low hanging fruit is to attract immigrants—- to lay out the welcome mat for those who are predisposed to pick-up and move, to take risks, and to endure the pain inherent in the pursuit of opportunity in the challenging frontier.

Back to Canada.

In Vancouver, 40% of the population is foreign born.

Toronto, a five hour drive from Cleveland, is similarly immigrant-rch, with over 50% of its population born abroad.

To offer just a peek at how Canada does such a good job at the federal and local level to encourage and welcome immigrant newcomers, check this out.

The Hamilton Chamber of Commrece in Ontario, Canada, is leading an new exciting initiative called “Diversity Works” — a program that is designed to:

a.) increase the capacity of local companies to recruit and hire foreign born talent

b.) mentor immigrant entrepreneurs

As reported in this article, Hamilton Chamber of Commerce president Richard Koroscil said recently:

“‘It’s a well-known fact that in coming years Hamilton will be seeing a shortage of skilled workers and we’re going to rely on immigration to fill those gaps,’” he said.

Studies by agencies such as the Conference Board of Canada support that view of the future, warning at current birth and retirement rates, by 2030 Canada will not be able to fill 500,000 jobs.

In the closer future, by 2017 it’s expected the majority of new jobs in Canada will be filled by immigrants.Ontario Citizenship Minister Eric Hoskins said those forces create a special challenge for Ontario.

“Immigration and the highly skilled workforce that will develop because of that is an economic imperative,” he said. “We can’t allow the challenges of integrating newcomers to stop us.”

The Diversity Works program is designed to help this problem in two ways.

One stream will provide recruitment and human resources support to employers, especially small businesses, looking to hire skilled immigrants. It’s hoped 200 local firms will benefit from that help.

The second stream will link newcomer entrepreneurs with Canadian mentors who will help them get started.The program will launch at the end of this month with 15 mentor-mentee pairs, including Kaleu and area businessman James Radcliffe, of SCS Machine Services. It’s a match Kaleu hopes will give him a chance to start manufacturing his ecological tools by linking his company name with an established player.

Diversity Works is financed by the federal and provincial governments. Other sponsors include Settlement and Integration Services Organization, Mohawk College, McMaster University’s DeGroote business school, the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion, the city, John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport, Volunteer Hamilton, the Hamilton Training Advisory Board and Scotiabank Group.

The initiative is one part of a broader Hamilton Immigration Strategy and Action Plan aimed at helping newcomers fit in to their new country by strengthening settlement services, employment aid, encouraging foreign credential recognition and other aid.”

Canada has done a great job in averting much of most serious fall-out from the global financial crisis. It has done a similarly great job in promoting a welcoming culture for immigrant talent (60% of the 250,000 Canadian “green cards” issued each year go to skilled immigrants; compare that with the U.S. where less than 15% of the 1,000,000 green cards issued each year are reserved for skilled immigrants).

Despite the popular phrase heard in Canada, “No Worries,” its clear that Canada has been worrying and working hard to build an infrastructure that emphasizes TALENT, regardless of accent or passport, as the key to success in in the global economy.

I hope that the lessons from our neighbors to the North will not be lost on the rust belt and the White House.

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Obama’s National Security Strategy Acknowledges the Contributions of Immigrants

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

The foundation of any country’s national security is its economy.

With a weakening economy in the U.S, particularly while the economies of China and India continue to grow, America’s national security is at risk.

As Edward Alden, a Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations writes,
…
“The engine of that economic growth is innovation, the capacity of Americans to be the first to invent, design and reap the profits from the next generation of technologies that will transform the way we live. As President Obama put it in his introduction to the strategy paper: “Simply put, we must see American innovation as a foundation of American power.”

That’s where immigration comes in.

In his “National Security Strategy” recently delivered to Congress, President Obama makes the argument that the strength of America’s economy (and by extension, its national security) depends in no small measure on America’s ability to act as a magnet for the world’s innovators, entrepreneurs, and highly-skilled talent.

Alden writes,

“The National Security Strategy (NSS), which is sent to Congress every four years, is designed to lay out in broad terms the administration’s philosophy on what is needed to protect the vital interests of the United States. It generally focuses on short and long-term military and other security threats. The most famous NSS, which was released by the Bush administration in 2002, created the rationale for the subsequent invasion of Iraq by stating that the United States would act to pre-empt potential security threats.

That’s the only way in which immigration has ever figured in previous administration strategy papers – as a threat. Most have made some passing reference to the need to control illegal immigration. The Clinton administration’s first strategy paper also warned that American openness to immigration raised the danger of economic espionage. The Bush NSS of 2002 was entirely silent on the issue.

But the Obama administration’s strategy shows a deeper understanding of the contribution of immigrants to America’s national security. The paper, for the first time, places immigration reform in the broader context of U.S. national interests. It starts with an obvious but all too often overlooked point: that America’s economy is the foundation of its national security. The United States will be unable to meet its security and political commitments around the world unless the economy recovers and grows more strongly in the future.

The engine of that economic growth is innovation, the capacity of Americans to be the first to invent, design and reap the profits from the next generation of technologies that will transform the way we live. As President Obama put it in his introduction to the strategy paper: “Simply put, we must see American innovation as a foundation of American power.”

That’s where immigration fits in. The United States has been alone among the world’s big powers in its ability to attract and retain the most talented immigrants from across the world, and it has been a remarkable windfall. Some 45 percent of the nation’s science and engineering Ph.D.s, and 65 percent of its computer science doctorates, are earned by students who were born abroad. America easily leads the world in the number of patents issued each year, and a quarter of those go to immigrant scientists and inventors, a hugely disproportionate number.

The Obama strategy, while hardly sanguine about the many economic challenges facing the United States, explicitly recognizes the strengths that come from such diversity. Immigration, the paper argues, must be part of the overall American strategy for strengthening its human capital. Improved schools, better science and math training, increased international education and exchange, and the reform of immigration laws are all part of a strategy to “ensure that the most innovative ideas take root in America.”

“Our ability to innovate, our ties to the world, and our economic prosperity depend on our nation’s capacity to welcome and assimilate immigrants,” the paper says.”

http://newamericamedia.org/2010/05/obamas-national-security-strategy-could-upend-immigration-debate.php

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On a related note, I have co-written a paper on how a new immigration system could accelerate the American path to energy independence and greater national security by welcoming more of the world’s top energy scientists and researchers.

Many good proposals on fixing immigration to turbocharge America’s economy have been offered.

Congress, however, continues to play politics over sound policy and national interests.

For decades, Congress has declined to craft an immigration system that makes the American economy stronger.

While we wait for Congress to do its job on immigration reform, the American economy continues to sputter, Asian and oil-producing economies continue to strengthen, and the interests of national security take a back seat.

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Why Immigrants Can Drive the Green Economy

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

Raymond Spencer, an Australian‐born entrepreneur based in Chicago, has a window on the future–and a gusto for investing after founding a high‐technology consulting company that sold for more than $1 billion in 2006. “I have investments in maybe 10 start‐ups, all of which fall within a broad umbrella of a ‘green’ theme,” he said.

“And it’s interesting, the vast majority are either led by immigrants or have key technical people who are immigrants.”

It should come as no surprise that immigrants will help drive the green revolution. America’s young scientists and engineers, especially the ones drawn to emerging industries like alternative energy, tend to speak with an accent.

The 2000 Census found that immigrants, while accounting for 12 percent of the population, made up nearly half of the all scientists and engineers with doctorate degrees. Their importance will only grow. Nearly 70 percent of the men and women who entered the fields of science and engineering from 1995 to 2006 were immigrants.

Yet, the connection between immigration and the development and commercialization of alternative energy technology is rarely discussed. Policymakers envision millions of new jobs as the nation pursues renewable energy sources, like wind and solar power, and builds a smart grid to tap it.

But Dan Arvizu, the leading expert on solar power and the director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy in Golden, Colorado, warns that much of the clean‐technology talent lies overseas, in nations that began pursuing alternative energy sources decades ago.

The 2000 Census found that immigrants, while accounting for 12 percent of the population, made up nearly half of the all scientists and engineers with doctorate degrees. Their importance will only grow.

Expanding our own clean‐tech industry will require working closely with foreign nations and foreign‐born scientists, he said. Immigration restrictions are making collaboration difficult. His lab’s efforts to work with a Chinese energy lab, for example, were stalled due to U.S. immigration barriers.

“We can’t get researchers over here,” Arvizu, the son of a once‐undocumented immigrant from Mexico, said in an interview in March 2009, his voice tinged with dismay. “It makes no sense to me. We need a much more enlightened approach.”

Dr. Zhao Gang, the Vice Director of the Renewable Energy and New Energy International Cooperation Planning Office of the Ministry of Science and Technology in China, says that America needs that enlightenment fast. “The Chinese government continues to impress upon the Obama administration that immigration restrictions are creating major impediments to U.S.‐China collaboration on clean energy development,” he said during a recent speech in Cleveland.

So what’s the problem? Some of it can be attributed to national security restrictions that impede international collaboration on clean energy. But Arvizu places greater weight on immigration barriers, suggesting that national secrecy is less important in the fast‐paced world of green‐tech development. “We are innovating so fast here, what we do today is often outdated tomorrow.

Finding solutions to alternative energy is a complex, global problem that requires global teamwork,” he said.

We need an immigration system that prioritizes the attraction and retention of scarce, high‐end talent needed to invent and commercialize alternative energy technology and other emerging technologies.

One idea we floated by Arvizu was a new immigrant “Energy Scientist Visa,” providing fast‐track green cards for Ph.D.s with the most promising energy research, as reviewed by a panel of top U.S. scientists. Arvizu enthusiastically responded, “Wow, that’s a brilliant idea.”

As the recent submission of the Startup Visa Act bill suggests, there’s really no shortage of good ideas of leveraging immigration to jumpstart the economy. The challenge is getting the American people to understand that high‐skill immigration creates jobs, that the current system is broken, and that action is required now.

We need an immigration system that prioritizes the attraction and retention of scarce, high‐end talent needed to invent and commercialize alternative energy technology and other emerging technologies.

For more on this, check out the new piece: “Why Immigrants Can Drive the Green Economy: Need for New Policy, Vision and Story Telling” by Robert L. Smith and myself.

http://immigrationpolicy.org/perspectives/why-immigrants-can-drive-green-economy

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Landing the U.S. Dream, Investor’s Business Daily

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

From: Investor’s Business Daily
Column: Leaders & Success

Landing The U.S. Dream, By Sonja Carberry, 04/08/2010

Think it’s challenging doing business in America? Newcomers see it differently. How to make persistence pay off the U.S. way:

• See for yourself. Nastel Technologies CEO David Mavashev planned to stay in New York City for just a few years.

It was 1980, and he’d fled the communist Soviet Union for Israel, where he was recruited by a U.S. bank to work stateside as a computer programmer. “I saw freedom to do what I want and to succeed,” Mavashev told IBD. “I could never do that in the Soviet Union.”

• Start the climb. After working as a programmer and consultant, Mavashev launched his own Long Island-based software firm in 1994. Back then, angel investors were virtually unheard of. “We didn’t have any money,” Mavashev said.

• Hold on tight. On a shoestring, Mavashev’s team developed groundbreaking middleware — software that communicates between machines and applications.
“In the year 2000 and following, we had a lot of acquisition offers,” he said. “But I wanted to continue my vision.”

Instead of cashing in, Mavashev kept pushing to develop more sophisticated business software. His private firm’s solutions are now used by giants such as Fidelity Investments and Best Buy (BBY).

Last year, while most business owners took recessionary blows, Mavashev’s sales increased 25%.
“That clearly demonstrates we’re on the right path,” he said.

• Take off. Lawyer and “Immigrant Inc.” co-author Richard Herman had to leave America to fully appreciate home.

In the early 1990s, he worked in Russia advising local entrepreneurs. He was astounded by endless obstacles, from shoddy phone service to government corruption.
Returning to the U.S., “for the first time I could see the abundance and the opportunity,” Herman said. “Success is possible. In other places it’s not so possible.”

• Welcome them in. In his book, Herman argues that immigrants are driving the U.S. economy in the right direction. Look no further than Google (GOOG) and eBay (EBAY). Each has a founder with foreign roots.

“We absorb these newcomers and we’re stronger for it,” Herman said. “Our goal should be to build the most powerful team on the planet.”

• Plant a flag. “If you’re not in the U.S., in many respects you’re just not (in business) at all. That’s where the big customers are.”

So says Israeli Rony Ross, the founder of Panorama Software.

After selling her tech solution to Microsoft (MSFT) in 1996, Ross opened offices in New York City, Toronto and London.

“I was really hoping to take it to a global level … and that’s what happened,” she said.

• Stand firm. Microsoft originally wanted Ross’ entire company, but she held tight during three months of dealings.

“I didn’t sleep. I didn’t eat. I didn’t do anything except think: ‘How can I not let this ball drop?’” Ross said.
Microsoft settled for the technology and an ongoing affiliation.

“Microsoft could use a partner like us,” Ross said. “That’s why our relationship continues today.”

• Join good company. Ross says cultural differences can make doing business difficult.
But the diversity she found in the U.S. was refreshing.

“The thing is, you don’t feel like the only stranger in the room,” she said.

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