U.S. Should Welcome the Best, Brightest

If the young Albert Einstein appeared today as a Caltech grad student who wanted to make his career in America, he probably couldn’t get a green card.

Unless Albert had a guaranteed job or friendly relatives here, back he would go to Europe--no ifs, ands or buts. But he’s a genius?! Doesn’t matter--our country has an immigration policy that deliberately discriminates against people with brains and skill.

Roughly 650,000 people a year are granted legal immigration status in this country. Less than 6% are admitted on the basis of expertise--such as a Rupert Murdoch. Family connections or political oppression matter most. Our immigration system is so messed up that an aspiring immigrant’s knowledge and entrepreneurial drive are virtually irrelevant to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

“We’re surprisingly unaccommodating to business-related immigration,” says Arthur C. Helton, who teaches immigration law at New York University.

That’s crazy. From its earliest days, this country’s leadership in technical innovation has depended on a flow of brilliant immigrants looking for a chance they could never get at home. We entered the Industrial Revolution in 1789 when Samuel Slater escaped to Rhode Island from England with plans for textile mills tucked securely in his head. Without emigres from Hitler’s Europe, America wouldn’t have built the atomic bomb and established primacy in the physical sciences. And (ironically) without the Werner von Brauns, we would have no space program or man on the moon. Computer technology? Our lead can be traced to immigrants such as An Wang and Intel’s Andrew Grove. Asian immigrant entrepreneurs, often relying on school or family ties to keep them in this country, are now reshaping California’s high-tech industries.

Make no mistake: Innovation comes from immigration. And yet, since legislation in 1965, our policy has ignored that heritage. “Our immigration policy certainly isn’t dedicated to the entrepreneur,” says Peter H. Loewy of Fragomen, Del Rey & Bernsen, a Los Angeles-based law firm handling corporate immigration. For the past 20 years, we’ve paid far more time, money and attention to illegal immigration.

It’s time to change focus. If you believe that our global competitiveness depends on our “human capital,” then we’ve got to consider an immigration policy that’s designed to attract the world’s brightest.

Elitist? You bet. The point is not to turn one’s back on the huddled masses yearning to breathe free but to also be pro-active and extend a welcome to immigrants with intellectual capital and ambition. Why shouldn’t we offer the best of both worlds--a refuge for the world’s oppressed and an opportunity for the world’s gifted?

Recent events give real urgency to that question. Margaret Thatcher’s Britain has turned its back on Hong Kong, a nation filled with entrepreneurs and hard-working professionals who fear what China has in store. The best-selling new magazine there is called Emigrant. Why should Vancouver get the creme de la creme of Hong Kong’s business class? Canada makes immigration far easier than we do. This country needs the sort of dynamism that these immigrants could provide. Let’s welcome them.

Look at Eastern Europe. There are hundreds of thousands of scientists and engineers, both superbly educated and technically proficient, in Hungary, East Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia. Yes, dramatic market reforms are under way. But does anyone honestly believe that a Hungarian engineer with a great idea will get venture capital? Or that West Germany will cheerfully absorb all the engineers that East Germany has to offer? Emigration is limited but possible. Why shouldn’t these highly trained people look to the United States to enjoy the risks and benefits of a market economy? What’s more, why shouldn’t we encourage this as a matter of policy?

It’s not as though West Germany and Japan--our leading economic rivals--want to compete with us for all this talent and brains. They’re historically immigrant-averse. Great. Let’s go with our strength. We know how to cope with immigration; we know how to provide a chance to those from other lands. Let’s use immigration policy as a tool to enhance our competitiveness in cutting-edge technologies and not primarily as a source of cheap labor. Let’s send a message to the world that we value the skilled, educated and hard-working mind--and that we’re prepared to reward it with the gift of opportunity and citizenship.

“We shouldn’t put any barriers in place for those who can meaningfully contribute to our economy,” says National Science Foundation Director Erich Bloch, a German immigrant. “We only hurt ourselves when we do that.”

The Simpson-Kennedy Immigration Act of 1989--which overwhelmingly passed the Senate this summer--is a small but important step in recognizing the strategic economic importance of immigration policy.

The bill--which goes to the House next year--marks the first shift away from the purely family-centered immigration policy of the past 25 years by adding 104,000 new slots for immigrants who can bring special skills to this country. Half those slots go to companies hiring professionally trained foreign nationals.

The bill also sets up a point system for evaluating “independent immigrants,” and, as in Canada, confers legal status on foreign entrepreneurs who set up businesses that employ at least 10 Americans. Capitol insiders say the bill has a shot.

The Bush Administration, mum thus far, would be smart to make Simpson-Kennedy its own and champion merit-based immigration. It’s a natural for the “Education President.” Go an extra step: Give people with master’s degrees and Ph.Ds in science and engineering automatic green cards. Let’s be a magnet for technical talent in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America.

A possible brain drain? We’ll see. Our universities educate some of the finest minds in the world. What’s wrong with keeping a few more of them here after they graduate? Other countries will recognize that their emigres will want to maintain ties and trade with their homelands.

The world is becoming more open--and more competitive. We need all the bright, skilled and motivated people we can get. Our legal immigration policy is badly broken. Let’s fix it. Now.