If the U.S. Wants to Remain the ‘Shining City Upon a Hill’, We Must Stop Blocking Top Tech Talent

Our longtime leadership strategy as a nation has been to attract the best and brightest – or, in the words of Ronald Reagan, to be “a shining city upon a hill” with doors “open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here.”

In recent months, however, it looks as though China has started to beat us at our own game.

Several districts in Shanghai have launched a new startup visa designed to attract students and entrepreneurs from overseas, according to China Briefing. Shanghai also adjusted its visa policies and created business incentives for international entrepreneurs to develop their companies. These moves are part of the country’s plan to excel in innovation and become the global leader in pioneering new technologies.

China has also taken steps to develop talent and technology at home. Chinese universities graduated an astounding 4.7 million STEM graduates in 2016 while the U.S. had just over 560,000 STEM graduates in the same year. And President Xi has made developing self-driving cars, artificial intelligence and other innovations a national priority.

Sadly, we’re not doing much to protect our leadership role. Increasingly, we’ve embraced protectionism. We’ve closed our doors to high-skilled immigrants. We’ve blocked our ports with tariffs. We produce far fewer STEM graduates. In short, we’ve abandoned the ideals of Ronald Reagan’s “shining city.”

As I recently discussed in Entrepreneur, we can’t afford to close our doors. While I’m sympathetic to the president’s desire to defend the American worker, this is not the right path forward. Temporary residents comprise almost two-thirds of our nation’s first-time graduate students in computer science and mathematics. Many of our leading tech companies were founded by immigrants. Eliminating rules such as the International Entrepreneur Rule – designed to encourage high-skilled immigrant entrepreneurs to innovate here in the U.S. – means other countries will take the talent we’re giving away.

 And it won’t be just China that will take advantage of our negligence. Other countries – including France and Australia – have also developed startup visas. If we don’t invite the world’s best and brightest to enjoy the benefits of our culture – and allow them to bring their own unique perspective as well – then those benefits will slowly start to matter less, and innovative immigrants will start to look to other, more welcoming shores.

 Indeed, according to some estimates, they already have: Fewer international students are choosing to pursue college study in the U.S. A study released by the National Foundation for American Policy found an approximate four percent decline in the number of international students who enroll in U.S. universities between 2016 and 2017. Even more troubling, roughly half of this drop is due to fewer computer science and engineering students.

 The president has said that he’s open to merit-based immigration reform. As the American job market continues to boom, let’s hope that he and other federal leaders see there’s opportunity within this great land of ours for anyone with the will, the heart – and the ideas – to get here.