Reform for Immigrant Innovators Also Needed

From Immigration Direct:

While many are arguing over immigration reform, a new study has revealed that immigrants are necessary for businesses to thrive, according to The New York Times. The survey released by the Partnership for a New American Economy, a nonprofit group co-founded by New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg, revealed that many foreign-born inventors are trained in the country, however, many worry post-graduation about their future options for living in the United States.

Under current immigration laws, many student immigrants are only allowed to stay in the United States for 12 to 29 months after their graduation.

The majority of the innovators who move to the the U.S. to study science, technology, engineering or math, also called STEM subjects. Mayor Bloomberg believes it is important to keep these foreign graduates in the United States because otherwise they will return back to their countries and become American competitors.

“Now that we know immigrants are behind more than three of every four patents from leading universities, the federal laws that send[s] so many of them back to their home countries look[s] even more patently wrong,” Mayor Bloomberg said in a statement. Read more…

bh