Google Voices Support For ‘High-Skilled Immigration Reform’

Google took to its public policy blog today to make sure everyone (including governments) know where it stands when it comes to immigration in the United States. The company has discussed this topic i...
Google Voices Support For ‘High-Skilled Immigration Reform’
Written by Chris Crum
  • Google took to its public policy blog today to make sure everyone (including governments) know where it stands when it comes to immigration in the United States. The company has discussed this topic in the past on its official blog, and with President Obama speaking about it today, the company has weighed in again.

    Google SVP, People Operations Laszlo Bock writes:

    Our experiences here at Google and in the tech sector show us that immigrants to the U.S. are a powerful force for entrepreneurship and innovation at every level, from startups to multinational corporations. Immigrants have founded 40 percent of companies in the tech sector that were financed by venture capital and went on to become public in the U.S., among them Yahoo, eBay, Intel, and Google. And according to a recent Kauffman Foundation study, nearly a quarter of the engineering and technology companies founded in the U.S. between 2006 and 2012 had at least one key founder who was foreign-born. In 2012, these companies employed roughly 560,000 workers and generated $63 billion in sales.

    Still, at a time when the U.S. economy needs it most, our immigration policies are stifling innovation. The 2013 cap for the H-1B visas that allow foreign high skilled talent to work temporarily in the U.S. was exhausted by June 2012, preventing tech companies from recruiting some of the world’s brightest minds. Additionally, the severe backlog of green card applications has forced many foreign-born, U.S. educated entrepreneurs to look elsewhere to start their businesses. Other countries, like Chile and Canada, have responded with immigration policies and programs that welcome these innovators who have been turned away from the U.S.

    Here’s the White House’s press release highlighting the president’s proposals.

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