Immigrants in High Technology
According to a new U.S. study of immigrants, about two third of scientific and engineering workers in the U.S are foreign-born and about a quarter of high tech companies are owned by immigrants, such as Chinese and Indians. These immigrants owned numbers of high tech companies that generated over $50 billion in revenue each year and employed more than 650,000 workers in the U.S. Many of these companies were in electronics, semiconductors, and Information technology industries.
In Silicon Valley, the percentage of immigrant-owned startups is 53%. Among the immigrants, Indians were probably the most successful. According to the study, Indians had found more companies than any other groups such as Canadians, Russian, Chinese, Taiwanese, and Japanese. The proportion of Indian owned companies in Silicon Valley is 18%, even though Indians make up just 6% of population there. According to the study, among group of immigrants, Indians are known to help and support each others. The first wave of Indian immigrants was scientists, engineers who have worked for well established companies such as HP, National Semiconductor, and Texas Instrument in the early 1970s. They were willing to support the second wave of Indians who came during the booming of electronics industry in the 1980s where many became successful entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. These Indians were also helping the third wave of immigrants who came during the Y2K issue in the late 1990s and teach them to be entrepreneurs and how to overcome certain obstacles that they may face. Indians often formed organizations to teach others about how to start businesses, and how to work together. They shared information, knowledge, skills, and sometime even capital needed to start companies. Some groups had several hundred members, and the more established associations had more than several thousand members. The Indian community learned the rules of how to do business in technology industry and eventually mastered them. They were the most active professionals in the technology sector in the U.S.
Chinese were another successful group of immigrants in Silicon Valley and other technology cities such as Boston, Austin, Seattle and San Francisco. There are several Chinese associations and professional groups that were created to support each other even they were not as successful as the Indians. According to the study, there were two types of Chinese immigrants. The first group arrived in the U.S during the 1950s and 1960s that populated Chinatowns in big cities was mostly Cantonese speaking. Many were not well educated but very successful in business such as restaurants, financials, imports/exports, and retails. The second group who came in 1970s and 1980s were mostly better educated, speaking Mandarin and more active. Most of them came as college students from China but after graduated decided to stay in the U.S and worked in technology industry. This group comprised of people from a wide range of regions in Asia: from Shanghai and Szechuan to Beijing, from Hong Kong to Taiwan and Singapore.
Because most were college educated, they often worked in high technology industry then eventually became entrepreneurs and venture capitalists who invested in other technology startups. The clear distinction from this group to other immigrants were they often engaged in social activities, forming coalitions with other Asians who have similar goals such as working against racial discrimination, and campaigning for political activities. Some of them were elected to school board, city council, mayor and even state congressman.
The study also found that among immigrants who worked in technology industry, 94% of them have college education with many have advanced degrees. A majority of them study science and technology from U.S universities and eventually get jobs in these areas. One thing clear from this study is that with talents and education, these immigrants can succeed on the basis of their achievement. And that skin color, accent, and background did not matter in the U.S. By follow these steps of previous immigrants; many could achieve a similar success.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
