VisasForeign-Born PhDs Deterred from Working in Startups Because of Visa Concerns
Foreign-born Ph.D. graduates with science and engineering degrees from American universities apply to and receive offers for technology startup jobs at the same rate as U.S. citizens, but are only half as likely to actually work at fledgling companies, a study finds.
Foreign-born Ph.D. graduates with science and engineering degrees from American universities apply to and receive offers for technology startup jobs at the same rate as U.S. citizens, but are only half as likely to actually work at fledgling companies, finds a study co-authored by researchers at Cornell University and the University of California San Diego.
Instead, they choose to work at large technology companies with the resources and experience to sponsor foreign workers for highly coveted H-1B or permanent residency visas.
UCSD says that the findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest visa policies are an obstacle for small companies seeking to hire foreign-born workers with specialized, in-demand skills. Because so many Ph.D. graduates in STEM fields are international – more than half in some disciplines – this creates an uneven playing field for startups competing with established companies to attract top talent.
“Startups are an important engine for innovation and economic growth,” said Michael Roach, assistant professor Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell. “A key insight from this research is that rather than fostering entrepreneurial activity, U.S. visa policies may disadvantage young technology startups – and this applies to startups founded by immigrants and U.S. citizens alike. But hiring is one of the key challenges for early-stage technology startups, and current U.S. visa policies make it even harder.”
Roach is a co-author with UC San Diego’s John Skrentny of “Why Foreign STEM Ph.D.s Are Unlikely to Work for U.S. Technology Startups.” The research, published In PNAS on 5 August, was based on a nine-year survey of more than 2,300 Ph.D.s, beginning in graduate school and following them into their careers.
Tech skills such as machine learning and data science are in extremely high demand by companies, and unemployment among Ph.D. graduates in STEM fields is less than 2 percent. According to the National Science Foundation’s Science and Engineering Indicators 2018, half of the people who receive doctorates from U.S. universities in computer science were born in other countries, so access to this pool of workers is key for small and large companies alike.
“Over the
