America's Perilous Anti-Immigrant Protectionism

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Source: Business Week

America's Perilous Anti-Immigrant Protectionism
By erecting immigration barriers to protect knowledge workers, the U.S. is resurrecting a ghost of the Depression-era Smoot-Hawley tariff
By Vivek Wadhwa

America's Perilous Anti-Immigrant Protectionism
In the past two months, Kauffman Foundation has published two of my reports outlining how U.S. immigration policy is chasing away talented foreigners who had previously served as a backbone for U.S. science innovation. I have received more than 1,000 e-mails attacking me for my views and disparaging my race and heritage. Some have threatened to do me harm.

The xenophobia reflected by these attacks and recent public discourse is a dangerous indication of a political climate and attitude shift that threaten our economy. The U.S. is sliding toward a new kind of protectionism, one that seeks to preserve knowledge-worker jobs by shutting out skilled immigrants. This protectionism could be every bit as devastating to the U.S. as the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which boosted tariffs to record levels, sparked a trade war, and ravaged world trade during the Great Depression. In the knowledge economy, production of intellectual property is the highest-valued good, helping create great jobs and strong growth. Erecting immigration barriers, political or cultural, to protect knowledge workers is nothing more than IP Protectionism, a modern-day version of Smoot-Hawley


Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2009/tc20090415_771803.htm

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