November 22, 2020
IN EXCHANGE, DONALD CAGED THEM:
The vaccine breakthroughs at Moderna and Pfizer are the latest examples of how immigrants have been driving billions in American innovation for decades (Marguerite Ward, Nov. 22nd, 2020, Business Insider)
On Monday, Moderna, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotechnology company, announced that its mRNA-1273 vaccine, developed in partnership with the US government, appeared to be 94.5% effective against the novel coronavirus.It was a major breakthrough in modern science. And it was made possible in part because of an immigrant from the Middle East named Noubar Afeyan. [...]The impact of immigrants on US innovation can't be overstated, said Giovanni Peri, professor and chair of the department of economics at the University of California, Davis."There is nothing to be surprised about because immigrants and foreign-born scientists and engineers have been driving American innovation and technology for at least the last 30 years," he told Business Insider.Top health and science companies like Moderna and Pfizer frequently bring highly skilled immigrants to the US on H-1B visas.For example, Moderna received or renewed 27 high-skilled immigrant visa applications in 2019, according to analysis of data from the US Office of Foreign Labor Certification. In 2019, that that number was 100 for Pfizer.Entrepreneurship, too, has greatly prospered because of immigrants. Immigrants are twice as likely as US natives to patent, Jennifer Hunt, professor and chair of Rutgers University's department of economics told Business Insider. Immigration increases US productivity and gross domestic product, she said.Between 1980 and 2000, nearly 40% of all PhD scientists and engineers employed in the US were foreign born. From 1990 to 2004, over one-third of US scientists who had received Nobel Prizes were immigrants.One 2007 study estimated that one in four technology firms created in the US between 1995 and 2005 was founded by at least one foreign-born entrepreneur. Separate research found that in 2006, immigrants made up 25% of new high-tech companies with more than a million dollars in sales.According to this data, the US has more immigrant inventors than every other country combined, Quartz reported.
Posted by Orrin Judd at November 22, 2020 11:23 AM