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The "Founder Visa" - Immigration We Can All Agree On?
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by Colonel Boyle | September 17, 2009 at 02:39 am
128 views | 2 Recommendations | 2 comments
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Controversies about immigration are nothing new. At a time when racial tensions are being exacerbated by foreign wars, religious terrorism and globalisation, the issue has rarely been more prominent.
Separating fears about cultural change, race and economics has proven to be a minefield for policy-makers around the world. Extremist parties around the world have found a popular touchstone in these times of economic distress when people are naturally looking for scapegoats for the woes that have befallen them.
Despite these fears, most economists and business people alike argue that immigration is an important contributor to ecnomic growth, and that has led to the creation of some interesting ideas.
US entrepreneur and writer Paul Graham has proposed a new category to add the many different categories of US visa which he has called a "Founder Visa". This would allow 10,000 'entrepreneurial immigrants' to be granted residency in the US on the condition that they can only work for companies they start up while in the states. Graham argues that this will bolster the presence of Silicon Valley in particular as a hub of innovation for the entire world, and attract the brightest thinkers to the USA.
He points to examples like Jerry Yang of Yahoo!, who was born in Taipei, and Sergey Brin of Google who is Russian by birth. These foreign-born entrepreneurs have created billions of dollars of wealth for US citizens and created thousands of jobs in entirely new markets.
It's a sound theoretical solution that has led to a a groundswell of support on the internet. Of course, there are those who are opposed to immigration on ideological grounds who will never be satisfied by any conditions that are attached to applicants for citizenship - but now, more than ever, it is critical that reactionary forces are not allowed to stymie the creation of a freer, more open world.
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apichert
Evanston, Illinois, United States
rachelaguiar
Evanston, Illinois, United States
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (2)
at 07:51 on September 17th, 2009
From a humanitarian perspective, our fellow human beings, who migrate to support their families, continue to suffer at the hands of immigration policies that separate them from family members and drive them into remote parts of the American desert, sometimes to their deaths. This suffering should not continue. Now is the time to address this pressing humanitarian issue which affects so many lives and undermines basic human dignity. Our society should no longer tolerate a status quo that perpetuates a permanent underclass of persons and benefits from their labor without offering them legal protections.
at 10:33 on September 17th, 2009
Founders Visa proposals for entrepreneurial endeavors will be controversial because opponents will characterize it as being in compeition with American start up companies in terms of competition for qualified American employees. I have a Canadian friend who worked here for 10 years in the IT industry. He is a computer architect whose unique abilities have kept him employed through out the ups and downs in Silicon Valley, but he changed jobs three times in the last five years when start ups failed in two of the companies.
IT industries out source because they can employ people in foreign countries for the half the salary who are willing to work 16 hour days 7days a week. Founders would have to make concessions regarding hiring practices that would restrict hiring to Americans. Would they be willing to do this?