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| AOL founder tells Senate: back immigration reform or risk losing talent | AOL founder tells Senate: back immigration reform or risk losing talent |
| (about 1 month later) | |
| Steve Case, the co-founder of AOL, has called on Congress to back a comprehensive package of immigration reforms or condemn the US to gradually losing its entrepreneurial edge in the global battle for new ideas and talent. | Steve Case, the co-founder of AOL, has called on Congress to back a comprehensive package of immigration reforms or condemn the US to gradually losing its entrepreneurial edge in the global battle for new ideas and talent. |
| Case delivered an impassioned speech to the US Senate judiciary committee hearing that has kick started what promises to be an intensive round of congressional discussions on what to do with America's broken immigration system. In his state of the union speech on Tuesday night, President Obama said that his proposals for reform would include new channels to "attract the highly-skilled entrepreneurs and engineers that will help create jobs and grow our economy". | Case delivered an impassioned speech to the US Senate judiciary committee hearing that has kick started what promises to be an intensive round of congressional discussions on what to do with America's broken immigration system. In his state of the union speech on Tuesday night, President Obama said that his proposals for reform would include new channels to "attract the highly-skilled entrepreneurs and engineers that will help create jobs and grow our economy". |
| Case, who now runs an investment firm called Revolution, is spearheading a concerted campaign from major Silicon Valley companies which have grown increasingly frustrated by the bureaucratic hurdles put in their way to keeping talented young entrepreneurs and engineers in the US. "As we grow complacent in the global battle for talent, our competitors are picking up the game," Case warned the senators. | Case, who now runs an investment firm called Revolution, is spearheading a concerted campaign from major Silicon Valley companies which have grown increasingly frustrated by the bureaucratic hurdles put in their way to keeping talented young entrepreneurs and engineers in the US. "As we grow complacent in the global battle for talent, our competitors are picking up the game," Case warned the senators. |
| He cited the example of Australia, a country with an economy 1/14th the size of America's but that grants almost as many green cards as does the US. He also pointed to a cautionary tale: that Google and other large firms had been forced to relocate sections of their operations abroad, because they had been unable to overcome the blockage in obtaining US visas for highly skilled workers. | He cited the example of Australia, a country with an economy 1/14th the size of America's but that grants almost as many green cards as does the US. He also pointed to a cautionary tale: that Google and other large firms had been forced to relocate sections of their operations abroad, because they had been unable to overcome the blockage in obtaining US visas for highly skilled workers. |
| More than 15,000 foreign-born graduates from US universities specialising in the core tech subjects of science, technology, engineering and maths ("Stem") have been forced to leave the country at the end of their studies every year because of an arbitrary cap in visas, Case said, adding that the results could be seen in Silicon Valley, where over the past seven years the percentage of startups founded by immigrant entrepreneurs had fallen from 52.4% to 43.9%. | More than 15,000 foreign-born graduates from US universities specialising in the core tech subjects of science, technology, engineering and maths ("Stem") have been forced to leave the country at the end of their studies every year because of an arbitrary cap in visas, Case said, adding that the results could be seen in Silicon Valley, where over the past seven years the percentage of startups founded by immigrant entrepreneurs had fallen from 52.4% to 43.9%. |
| The issue of high-end technology visas for Silicon Valley is a relatively erudite one compared with the vast problem of America's 11 million undocumented workers and their futures. But politically, the rising chorus of calls for reform from big tech corporations – driven by their own self-interest but attaching itself to the wider campaign for comprehensive change – could prove decisive in bringing wavering Republican and Democrat members of Congress behind the proposals. | The issue of high-end technology visas for Silicon Valley is a relatively erudite one compared with the vast problem of America's 11 million undocumented workers and their futures. But politically, the rising chorus of calls for reform from big tech corporations – driven by their own self-interest but attaching itself to the wider campaign for comprehensive change – could prove decisive in bringing wavering Republican and Democrat members of Congress behind the proposals. |
| Case made a point of telling the committee that though his main concern was the search for new talent, he also wanted to see the 11 million undocumented workers find a dignified pathway to citizenship – one of Obama's chief objectives behind this year's immigration push. "The smart and responsible course is passing one comprehensive bill that deals once and for all with these issues," he said. "This is the right thing to do, but also the smart thing to do." | Case made a point of telling the committee that though his main concern was the search for new talent, he also wanted to see the 11 million undocumented workers find a dignified pathway to citizenship – one of Obama's chief objectives behind this year's immigration push. "The smart and responsible course is passing one comprehensive bill that deals once and for all with these issues," he said. "This is the right thing to do, but also the smart thing to do." |
| The Senate committee also heard from Jose Antonio Vargas, a former Washington Post journalist who was part of the paper's Pulitzer-prize winning team that covered the 2007 Virginia Tech mass shooting. He came to the US from the Philippines as a child, only discovering at the age of 16 that his grandfather had bought him a fake green card and that he was in fact not authorised to be in the country. | The Senate committee also heard from Jose Antonio Vargas, a former Washington Post journalist who was part of the paper's Pulitzer-prize winning team that covered the 2007 Virginia Tech mass shooting. He came to the US from the Philippines as a child, only discovering at the age of 16 that his grandfather had bought him a fake green card and that he was in fact not authorised to be in the country. |
| He built a successful career as a writer, only revealing his undocumented status years later. "I am the only one in my extended family of 25 Americans who is undocumented," Vargas told the senate panel. "When you inaccurately call me 'illegal' – no human being is illegal – you're not only dehumanizing me. You're offending them." | He built a successful career as a writer, only revealing his undocumented status years later. "I am the only one in my extended family of 25 Americans who is undocumented," Vargas told the senate panel. "When you inaccurately call me 'illegal' – no human being is illegal – you're not only dehumanizing me. You're offending them." |
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