Politics - Immigration and The Law

of Unintended Consequences, that is.

Image from Vinod's blog

From Raw Story comes a report that the "tough" new U.S. policies on immigration are creating a "reverse brain-drain." I don't know how valid this is.

The study by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation found that more than one million potential immigrants, including scientists, engineers, doctors and researchers, are competing for 120,000 permanent US resident visas each year.

[...]

The study by researchers at Duke, New York and Harvard universities is the third in a series of studies focusing on immigrants' contributions to the US economy.

[...]

The report said a majority of immigrant company founders, including many in the tech sector, came to the United States as students. Many ended up staying in the United States after graduation, with a number founding new companies.

It said 31 percent of the startups in tech centers had an immigrant key founder, including 52.4 percent in California's Silicon Valley.

The researchers said Indian immigrants founded more companies than those from the next four countries -- Britain, China, Taiwan and Japan -- combined.

They also concluded that foreign nationals living in the United States were inventors or co-inventors in 25.6 percent of international patent applications filed from the United States in 2006.

But I'm thinkin' Hahvahd wouldn't lightly lend its name to something totally without substance.

Seems like those scary brown peepul are good for something other than scaring the rightwing loony fundies of America. Or picking lettuce and tomatoes for cheap.

The whole immigration debate is becoming so racist and vituperative. Why can't we just deport the Rush "PilonidalCyst" Limpdicks and Michelle "Cheerleader" Malkins, and accept the scientists, researchers, and yeah, the fucking lettuce-pickers too? You really wanna pay five bucks for a head of lettuce? The chicken-processing, meat-processing, and child-minding industries are built on the backs of immigrant labour. Severely underpaid and exploited immigrant labour, at that.

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