INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS MAKE THE U.S. MUCH STRONGER

Elon Musk, who immigrated to the United States, was once the holder of an H-1B visa. Imagine a world where due to United States’ exclusionary immigration policies, Musk was forced to go to our economic competitor: China. It may be difficult to think of China being the beneficiary of the global headquarters of Tesla and Spacex. However, this is the path the Trump administration has carved out for our country.

Recent actions by the White House limiting H-1B visas and the latest move from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — forcing international students to leave the country unless enrolled in inperson classes — harm the innovation economy and place severe limits on a postpandemic economic recovery for San Diegans and all Americans. Although the administration on Tuesday rescinded the decision to have foreign students leave the country, it is still symbolic of how it views foreign talent.

President Donald Trump is betting on his supporters believing in the long-held myth that foreign-born talent displaces domestic talent. Nothing can be further from the truth. For example, a 2017 study showed that U.s.-born workers gained $431 million as a result of the H-1B visa system in 2010.

In fact, a 2019 study found an astounding 45% of Fortune 500 companies were founded or co-founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants. You may recognize some of the names: Google, Intel, Apple and the aforementioned Tesla.

The increasingly hostile immigration policies from the White House are putting the growth of the innovation economy at severe risk. A study by UC San Diego’s Gaurav Khanna drew a direct correlation between H-1B visa holders and accelerated innovation in U.S. companies via newer and better product development. It is especially important during the novel coronavirus pandemic that the innovation industry be allowed to access global talent, which is critical to the research and development sector’s ability to develop drug therapies for COVID-19 treatments and in the global race for a vaccine.

The regional innovation economy in the past few years has realized the importance of foreign students to the San Diego economy. They have chartered Tech San Diego, deploying dedicated resources to help companies source talent from regional universities. Whether through internships, which often lead to full-time employment, or scouting graduating students for the best and the brightest, access to university talent is an important economic development differentiation for the region. If the administration ultimately gets its way in limiting foreign talent, this differentiator is at risk of being decapitated.

Although the administration has rescinded the immediate decision to send students home, we need to be prepared to protest any similar schemes to limit foreign students. UC San Diego has 9,000 foreign students and 2,000 recent graduates. These students and alumni enrich the region in countless ways beyond economic benefits. When they are there, they are able to see firsthand why San Diego is the technologies’ perfect climate.

The students make lifelong connections to our region. And while some will stay in the community, the ones that return to their countries yield often surprising benefits in linking their region with San Diego.

They return to their homeland with an affinity for their time in the U.S and act as unpaid ambassadors of good will. Nationally, over 1 million students attend U.S. colleges and universities annually and, by one study, they yielded an estimated economic impact of $41 billion and created support for more than 450,000 U.S. jobs during the 2018-19 school year.

There is also a question of fairness; for many of these students, it is a lifelong dream to attend a top U.S. university like UC San Diego or San Diego State University. To simply state that they cannot attend college remotely during this global health crisis is neither fair nor safe.

So what do we do? First, we should be increasing the number of H-1B visa holders while at the same time making sure access to H-1B visas are fair and that no company is exploiting foreign workers. The process of securing an H-1B visa should be simplified and more accessible to small and midsize innovation companies.

The administration has been talking about merit-based immigration. While increasing H-1B visas is a good first step, we need to welcome foreign students from abroad and instead embrace their talent as an innovation and economic driver. All non-native graduates from accredited universities should be fast-tracked to a worker visa and incentivized to remain in the U.S.

Rather than having an adversarial position on immigration, immigration could be an economic partner in assisting new talent to remain in the United States. We need to finally end the drumbeat that foreign talent replaces domestic talent, as a chorus of studies have shown the positive economic and cultural benefits foreign talent brings to our nation.

Let’s embrace our future foreign talent. Your own job may depend on it.