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ImmigrationProf Blog
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The Rustbelt Needs Immigrants

By immigrationprof

Thanks to Richard Herman for this:

In Sunday’s Cleveland Plain Dealer, Associate Editor Joe Frolik wrote a piece outlining the top reasons to be worried about Cleveland’s economic future:

“#1.  Skills gap:

An underprepared work force makes it hard for tech-based firms (including advanced manufacturers) — to find employees. So thousands of good jobs go vacant.

#2.  Closed doors:
Immigrants revitalize cities and open them to the world marketplace. Yet this region has no political will, let alone a strategy, to attract them.”
—–
Clearly, #1 and #2 are related.

As the region continues to lack the political will to even discuss the opportunities of increased immigration to Northeast Ohio, other regions get things moving in the right direction:

http://burghdiaspora.blogspot.com/2008/06/h-1b-geographic-loopholes.html

http://blogs.computerworld.com/why_guam_is_exempt_from_h_1b_cap

See also this.
——–

The Milken Institute recently recently released its  2008 State Technology & Science Index.  The Index sets fortth the reason why Ohio needs an injection of high tech talent, innovation and entrepreneurship —-  now. 

Overall, Ohio was 36th in the Index.

In sub-categories of the Index, Ohio is:

41st in percentage of population ages 25+ with Ph.Ds
40th in percentage of bachelor’s degrees granted in science or engineering
49th in number of business start-ups per 100,000 people
49th in average yearly growth in high-tech industries
46th in R&D on environmental science per capita
48th in R&D on agricultural science per capita
45th in National Science Foundation funding
40th in per capital state expenditures for higher education
50th in number of high-tech industries with location quotient higher than 1
39th in total venture capital investment growth

Welcoming talent, international or otherwise, should be a priority for any state that wishes to compete in a global, knowledge-based economy.

If Ohio is going to turn around its economic downward spiral, it should be developing partnerships with neighboring rustbelt states to co-develop international human capital strategies and lobby Congress for legislative change that offers immigration incentives to attract immigrant talent, entrepreneurs and capital to the rustbelt region.

Richard Herman, Esq.
Cleveland, Ohio

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