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Silicon Valley's Lead Role in Idea Economy Relies on Foreign-Born
Commentary: Talk of Silicon's Valley's big comeback could turn out
to be hype unless America reforms its shortsighted policies on
immigration and education
By George Koo, New America Media
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Jan 25, 2006 - "Silicon Valley is back," proclaimed
the organizers of a State of the Valley conference that examined the
economic health of the world-famous wellspring of technology. That's
good news. But the bad news is that our fear of immigrants could
threaten the valley's resurgence.
The conference, sponsored by the nonprofit Joint Venture: Silicon Valley
Network, celebrated the reversal of a negative trend: Every year since
the dot-com bust in 2000, the valley's total employment had declined.
Last year the Silicon Valley payroll, however, showed an increase of
about 2,000 jobs, or some 0.2 percent of a work force of 1 million. From
peak to trough, the valley actually had lost more than 200,000 jobs. The
minuscule gain was seen as hopeful sign that the hemorrhage has stopped.
Nonetheless, industry leaders and pundits at the event were quick with
self-congratulations and applauded Silicon Valley's ability to reinvent
itself and remain the world's center for new technologies. First, it had
broken through in innovation on integrated circuits, then in information
technology, then the Internet and life sciences and now as the world
leader in an idea economy.
Beneath the thin veneer of good news, however, there's food for thought
that can cause indigestion and keep one up at night -- at least for
those worried about the future of this country. It's about our
shortsighted policies on immigrants and education.
According to the survey released, Silicon Valley made up 1 percent of
the nation's population but filed 11 percent of the patents and soaked
up over 25 percent of all the venture capital invested in the United
States. By any measure, this was a confirmation of the innovative and
unique character of the valley.
This uniqueness can be attributed to demographics that are different
from anywhere else in the country. Here, whites are already a minority,
at 40 percent of the population. Asians make up 33 percent and are the
second-largest ethnic group.
The foreign-born make up 38 percent of the denizens of Silicon Valley
and account for 53 percent of the engineers and scientists working
there. One can only conclude that the Silicon Valley spirit of
innovation and enterprise is inseparable from the presence of
immigrants.
Without immigrants there would be no Silicon Valley. Yet since 9/11, our
national policy has been to keep foreigners out. This policy is
indiscriminate and affects our ability to attract the talent that the
valley needs. Some would even argue that the anti-immigrant policy has
been used to keep out foreign students coming from China and India.
This country's past greatness, built on the backs of immigrants, is
frequently forgotten. There's even the thinking that raising the barrier
for foreign entry would lower the bar of entry to the industry for
native-born Americans. Unfortunately, technological excellence cannot be
wrung from those with mediocre credentials.
At every unveiling of the past year's scorecard for Silicon Valley,
leaders complain about the inadequate quality of K-12 education in this
country and publicly wonder where the next-wave-entry engineers will
come from. Were it not for foreign students who came to study and
decided to remain and work in the valley, there would have been no
horses to drive innovation.
This country is not just leaving any child behind. A whole generation is
being left behind. A recent international math test of 15-year-olds
ranked the United States 29th out of 34 nations tested. This is just one
of a stream of indications. We should be frightened out of our wits, but
we've been hearing these kinds of results for much too long.
Out of the 300 semifinalists at the prestigious Intel Science Fair this
year, a national competition for high school students, 67 have a Chinese
surname. That's roughly 10 times higher than pro-rata share based on the
Chinese population in the United States.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, there were nine semifinalists, two with
surnames from India and four from China or Taiwan. One can't tell by
their surnames if the other three came from immigrant families.
Instead of talking about white flight from Asian-dominated high schools
in Cupertino, Calif., we should be worrying about how to motivate more
kids of any ethnic group to take an interest in math and science.
We don't teach our kids to be good in math and science. Yet we don't
want immigrants who are highly trained and motivated to be too
formidable a competition for native-born American kids.
What does this say about the future of the United States? How long can
we continue to ring the gong of good news in Silicon Valley?
George Koo is an international business consultant
and commentator for Pacific News Service.
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