{"id":9781,"date":"2015-08-13T08:56:19","date_gmt":"2015-08-13T12:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=9781"},"modified":"2018-12-28T14:09:41","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T19:09:41","slug":"why-is-america-recruiting-from-the-worlds-least-developed-and-educated-nations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2015\/08\/13\/why-is-america-recruiting-from-the-worlds-least-developed-and-educated-nations\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is America Recruiting from the World’s Least Developed and Educated Nations?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Successful companies recruit new employees by pursuing the best and brightest with a diverse set of experiences, education, and skills to grow their business. America\u2019s immigration policies should similarly seek to recruit limited numbers of immigrants from a diverse set of nations who offer the most value to grow America\u2019s economy for the 21st<\/sup> Century.<\/p>\n In 1970, roughly half of our immigrants came from the top 10 leading economies. Today the world\u2019s 10 leading economies<\/a> (following the U.S.) include China, Japan, Germany, U.K. France, Brazil, Italy, India, Russia, and Canada. While these 10 nations contribute to 45% of global GDP, they represent only 18% of our immigrants over the last 30 years.<\/p>\n We should be targeting immigrants from the most innovative nations across the world.\u00a0Bloomberg recently ranked innovative nations<\/a> based on their research and development, high-tech companies, and patents among other factors. The U.S. ranked third behind South Korea and Sweden.\u00a0 Other leaders included Japan, Germany, Denmark, Singapore, Switzerland, Finland, Taiwan, and Canada.<\/p>\n We can also target immigrants coming from the world\u2019s leading education systems<\/a>: Canada, Finland, Japan, Poland, Singapore, Estonia, Hong Kong, South Korea, China, and Taiwan.<\/p>\n Yet instead of targeting immigrants from leading economies with innovative and educated workforces, the top 10 countries of origin for immigrants since 1986<\/a> include:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n These 10 nations represent 60% of our legal immigrants over the last 30 years. Instead of tapping the largest, most successful economies, half the list ranks outside the top 50. Only two nations rank in the top 50 for innovation. Only three nations rank in the top 40 for education.<\/p>\n When you look at the full list of countries of origin for U.S. immigrants<\/a>, you will see some shocking results:<\/p>\n As we seek to grow our economy for future generations, the U.S. clearly is not recruiting immigrants from the world\u2019s leading nations. Why are we issuing millions of visas to some of the poorest, uneducated nations in the world? In addition to reducing the number of visas issued annually from one million, the U.S. must also reallocate the visas issued among nations. To grow our economy for the 21st<\/sup> Century, the U.S. must prioritize visas for educated immigrants coming from thriving, innovative economies.<\/p>\n The author of this guest opinion is a federal policy analyst<\/em>. \n