Here is a link to an article from a March 2009 article from the Economist that is featured in my Microeconomics textbook under the heading: "Do Immigrants Displace or Complement Domestic Workers?"
The main point of the article is that the answer to that question is the latter. Innovative immigrants should be welcomed whole-heartedly into American society and institutions. They help us. As the author of the article wisely states, "Economists think of knowledge, unlike physical goods, as 'non-rival':use by one person does not necessarily preclude use by others". Instead of "crowding out" innovative Americans, bright immigrants "crowd in" native innovation because "ideas feed off each other".
This article hearkens back to the very first section of Chapter 1 in the textbook, where the H-1B visa is also discussed. ("US law restricts the number of foreign 'specialty workers' who may enter the United States under the H-1B visa program to just 65,000 per year".) Economists know that this law is a bad idea. So does Bill Gates. The textbook cites him complaining that the H-1B visa results in a "critical shortage of scientific talent" for American companies. Gates also noted when he testified before Congress in 2008 that our universities draw the brightest students from around the world, but then they are "not allowed to stay and work in the country... we're turning them away".
Sources in addition to the linked article include:
-My Econ 101 testbook, Microeconomics: Third Edition written by R. Glenn Hubbard and Anthony Patrick O'Brien.
-"Turning Away Talent," Wall Street Journal, March 10, 2008
-"Anger Grows in India over US Visa Rules", BusinessWeek, February 24, 2009
-"Gates Repeats Request for More H-1B Visas," InfoWorld, March 12, 2008
See for statistics and graphs concerning foreign-born scientists: National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statistics, Science and Engineering Indicators: 2008, NSF 08-01 (Arlington, VA, February 2009).
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