Whaddaya want, America? Do you want an industrial rebirth? Do you want to be the global AI leader? Do you want the 21st century to be another American Century rather than a Chinese Century?
Answering “yes” to those questions also means answering yes to immigration and attracting more global talent. The ability to draw smarties from around the world and turn them into productive residents and citizens—to add them to the great American Story—is a national superpower if there ever was one. Acknowledging all of the above is just acknowledging reality (something I was told was a core trait of conservatism, by the way). Two bits of evidence on that front.
The first one comes via Bloomberg :
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. said production at a planned facility in Arizona will be postponed from late 2024 until 2025, an ominous delay as Washington tries to establish a more robust chip industry. Chairman Mark Liu said there are several challenges that TSMC faces at the US facility, including a shortage of skilled workers and expenses running higher than in Taiwan. The company is shifting some employees to Arizona to help with the development.
“We are working on improving this by sending skilled technical workers from Taiwan to the US,” Liu said on a conference call after earnings.
Give those “skilled technical workers” a green card, ASAP!
Next: a real eye-opening analysis from Stuart Anderson of the National Foundation for American Policy:
Immigrants have founded or cofounded nearly two-thirds (65% or 28 of 43) of the top AI companies in the United States, and 70% of full-time graduate students in fields related to artificial intelligence are international students, according to a new National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) analysis. Seventy-seven percent of the leading U.S.-based AI companies were founded or cofounded by immigrants or the children of immigrants. Forty-two percent (18 of 43) of the top U.S.-based AI companies had a founder who came to America as an international student. … Immigrants from Israel and the United Kingdom were second with three, followed by Canada, China and France with two each. Immigrants from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Iran, Kenya, Lebanon, Taiwan, Syria, Poland and elsewhere founded or cofounded one of top U.S. AI companies.
There are all manner of immigration reforms worth discussing, from expanding visa categories to more streamlined visa processing. But at the end of the day, there needs to be a broad national acknowledgment and consensus on the importance of immigration, especially given global demographic challenges. National power is made out of people, my friends. More, please!
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM RESTORING AMERICAThis article originally appeared in the AEIdeas blog and is reprinted with kind permission from the American Enterprise Institute.