Miscellaneous: Immigration Story from a Technologist

Tan Le is a Vietnamese-Australian telecommunications entrepreneur, and serves as the co-founder of Emotiv. Emotiv is a technology company that invents wearable for the brain and the products are sold at many different retailers both online and inside of stores. The gear is very popular because it’s known for its wireless EEG properties.

This TEDTalk is relevant, because our affirmative post this week was focused on how immigrants are valued within the technological fields and the stories of how they got there. Here is Tan Le’s story.

Affirmative: What would America be without immigrants?

With the recent uprising and hype regarding the status of immigrants, many people have done research and reports on what America would be without immigrants. Many people tend not to recognize all immigrants have done for our country, and the strides and hard work they put in to get here.

There is a difference in the impact that legal immigrants have versus those who are illegal, but there is some impact either way.

Technology is a big factor in today’s society, and immigrants have contributed to it’s growth more than one would imagine. Without immigrants, out “unicorns” would not exist. “Unicorns” not referring to the imaginary creature, but the apps that allow people to travel from one place to another with simply the click of a button and the payment being connected to a credit card. Some common unicorns are Uber or PayPal. About 40 billion-dollar companies would not have been founded without immigrants.

If one looked at all the “unicorn” companies worth one billion dollars or more, 51% had a founder not born in the USA. Also, 70% of those “unicorn” companies feature immigrant workers that play large and key roles within the company.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

STEM is a technology based field that immigrants tend to lead, thrive, and do very well in, which may account and contribute to their creativity regarding app creation. They tend to hold a lot of STEM degrees which increases and helps when it comes to job multiplication. It is now statically proven that when there is one immigrant working in a STEM field, they are responsible for creating 2.72 more jobs.

Lastly, immigrants are making strides in fields outside of STEM, and in broader areas of patents and inventions. Immigrants are involved in 76% of patents from top patent producing companies in America, reported to help mankind in many ways.

These patents are both technologically and pharmaceutical (medicine based).