Immigration, innovation, and the connection between them are hot topics once again. With the labor market in the doldrums, America's technical supremacy under challenge from abroad, and the political issue of immigration reform heating up, many argue that immigrants have a special propensity for innovation and entrepreneurship that can help spark badly needed economic growth.
President Barack Obama expressed this view in its purest form in his highly publicized speech on immigration in El Paso, Texas, on 10 May. "Look at Intel, look at Google, look at Yahoo, look at eBay," he said. "All those great American companies, all the jobs they've created, everything that has helped us take leadership in the high-tech industry, every one of those was founded by, guess who, an immigrant. So we don't want the next Intel or the next Google to be created in China or India. We want those companies and jobs to take root here." The president also quoted the native-born Bill Gates, a man, he said, who "knows a little something about the high-tech industry," to the effect that excluding those "able and willing to help us compete" will damage the nation's "competitive edge."
To read the full, original article click on this link: Taken for Granted: Immigrants and Entrepreneurship - Science Careers - Biotech, Pharmaceutical, Faculty, Postdoc jobs on Science Careers
Author:Beryl Lieff Benderly
