Aug
23
According to a research study carried out by Duke University, Harvard University, and New York University, the US is facing a reverse-brain drain situation resulting from over a million skilled foreigners competing for a mere 120,000 US work visas a year.
The report, titled, ‘Intellectual Property, the Immigration Backlog, and a Reverse Brain-Drain’ is released by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation (EMKF) and is the third in a series of studies highlighting immigrant contribution to the global US economy.
Wertheim fellow with the Harvard Law School and executive in residence at Duke University Vivek Wadhwa, says, "The United States benefits from having foreign-born innovators create their ideas in this country. Their departures would be detrimental to U.S. economic well-being. And, when foreigners come to the United States, collaborate with Americans in developing and patenting new ideas, and employ those ideas in business in ways they could not readily do in their home countries…the world benefits."
According to the report, the number of foreigners in the employment-based immigration categories and their family members who are waiting for legal permanent residence in the United States was estimated at 1,055,084 in 2006. There are an estimated 126,421 residents abroad also waiting for employment-based legal residence in the US, making the worldwide figure 1,181,505.
Researchers also found that one in four engineering and technology companies founded between 1995 and 2005 were started by foreigners that immigrated to the United States. These companies employed 450,000 workers and generated $52 billion in revenue during 2006. Indians founded the most companies, followed by the United Kingdom, China, Taiwan, and Japan).
The company founders were mostly highly educated in science, technology, math and engineering-related field, with 96 percent holding at least a bachelor’s degree and 75 percent holding master’s or PhD degrees.
Meanwhile foreign nationals resident were inventors or co-inventors in 25.6 per cent of international patent applications filed in the US in 2006, and increase of 7.6 percent from applications filed in 1998. Foreign nationals also made up 41 per cent of the patents filed by the US government in 2006.
Vice president of Research and Policy at the Kauffman Foundation Robert Litan says, "Given that the U.S. comparative advantage in the global economy is in creating knowledge and applying it to business, it behoves the country to consider how we might adjust policies to reduce the immigration backlog, encourage innovative foreign minds to remain in the country, and entice new innovators to come," said Robert Litan, vice president of Research and Policy at the Kauffman Foundation.