A Stimulus from Overseas, by Newt Gingrich [View All]

[mule_train]

A Stimulus from Overseas
By Newt Gingrich

September 2, 2009, 11:01 am While visiting Asia and witnessing the dynamic entrepreneurial and high-tech business culture in Toyko, Beijing, and Seoul, I was reminded of how critically important it is for America to reform H-1B visas to make our country more accessible to highly skilled immigrants.

Reform in this area would be particularly helpful for America’s high-tech companies. A recent post by Vivek Wadhwa, a visiting scholar at Berkeley and an immigrant himself, shows that one-quarter of all “technology and engineering start-ups” have immigrant founders. In Silicon Valley, over half of these start-up companies were founded by immigrants.

Wadhwa also points to the drive in innovation from immigrants. Of all the patents filed on behalf of companies such as Merck, GE, and Cisco, immigrants make up well over the majority of authors.

H-1B visas would lead to more jobs and more growth. As some policy officials call for another stimulus, they should look to H-1B visa reform as a cheaper and more effective stimulus for economic growth. You can read more of my reflections from our trip to Asia in my newsletter, here.


http://blog.american.com/?p=4488

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For those who think I've been too hard on Democrats over H-1b, a reminder on how dark the hearts of republican leadership are on this issue