Rockefeller Emphasizes Economic Benefits of Skilled Immigration

Statement

Chairman John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV today gave opening remarks at the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing titled "The Role of Immigrants in America's Innovation Economy."

The United States has always been -- and still is -- a place that attracts talented people from other parts of the world who are searching for new opportunities. They view our country as a place that values and rewards hard work. They are attracted to our vibrant, open economy. And they admire our universities and research institutions that lead the world in technological and scientific innovation. They are often top students in their home countries, and would have plenty of career opportunities if they stayed there. But they want a bigger challenge and a bigger stage. So they come here, to the United States.

Tens of thousands of high-skilled immigrants come to this country every year to study, work, or start a business. We should welcome these people, because they make our country and our economy stronger. They create American jobs. The role of immigrants in the phenomenal growth of the U.S. technology industry over the past two decades is well documented. Many of our largest, most successful tech companies -- like Intel, eBay, Yahoo, and Google -- were founded or co-founded by foreign-born immigrants. In fact, from 1995 to 2005, foreign-born entrepreneurs helped found 25% of all new high-tech companies.

But the contributions of high-skilled immigrant workers to our economic success go way beyond Silicon Valley. As our witnesses are going to tell us today, companies in every region of our country -- large, mid-sized, and small -- benefit from their talent and skills. My home state of West Virginia has benefited from the high-quality foreign-trained doctors who practice in underserved rural areas. We also benefit from the foreign professionals who do some of the specialized advanced manufacturing jobs in our state. Our witnesses are also going to tell us that our immigration laws sometimes make our country a less welcoming place for high-skilled immigrants than it should be.

High demand for H-1B visas and long waiting times for green cards make it more difficult for talented foreign students to work or start a business here after they finish their degrees. Unfortunately, some students give up and go home, or they move to countries like Canada or Australia, which are actively recruiting highly skilled immigrants.

As the Senate begins debating immigration reform, I have called this hearing to examine what changes are needed in our laws to maintain our ability to attract the best and the brightest to the United States. This issue is part of a bigger challenge that we spend a lot of time discussing in this Committee -- the challenge of maintaining our country's position as the world leader in technological and scientific innovation. To maintain our lead, we have to be producing enough workers with the skills and training to do the jobs that our 21st century innovation economy is creating. One of the reasons American companies hire foreign engineers and scientists is because our U.S. education system is not currently producing enough of them.

Leaders in government, academia and the private sector have all identified this issue as one of the keys to our long-term economic success -- we have to do a better job encouraging our children to pursue the STEM subjects -- science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. A few years ago, President Obama commented that our economy would be in better shape if fewer young people aspired to be investment bankers, and more instead became engineers, scientists, doctors, or teachers. He received some flak for this comment, but I think he had it exactly right. The industries that are creating the high-paid, rewarding jobs of the 21st century are the science and technology sectors. We have to do a better job getting our students excited about these subjects, both at the K-12 and the college levels.

We have a long way to go in this country to reach the point where we celebrate the accomplishments of science fair winners in the same way we celebrate sports champions. To keep our economy and our country strong in the coming decades, we are going to need a lot of well-educated, tech and science-savvy workers and entrepreneurs. They are the people who are going to create the good American jobs of the future. Whether these people are American-born or come to this country as teenagers or adults, we need to give them all an opportunity to contribute to the success and prosperity of our country.

Source