Immigration Stunting, Not Stimulating, Innovation?

National Data, By Edwin S. Rubenstein

You’ve heard it a million times—this version is from an op-ed by the head of TechNet, an IT industry lobbying firm, and Scott McNealy, who just stepped down as the head of Sun:

What do the founders of Intel, Sun Microsystems and Google—Andy Grove, Andy Bechtolsheim, Vinod Khosla and Sergey Brin—have in common with Albert Einstein and Wernher von Braun? All are part of America's tradition of welcoming talented immigrants who have made significant contributions to our industry. [Stingy immigration policy stifles U.S. innovation USA TODAY, April 25, 2006]

Forget that Andy Grove was a businessman, not a techie. Forget that Google’s success rests as much on its marketing prowess as its search engine, which by some accounts, is no better than competitors. And forget, also, the evidence suggesting that IT employers crave “talented immigrants” mainly to avoid paying equally talented, albeit older, natives a decent wage.

The notion that immigration in general, and an expanded H-1b visa program in particular, are needed to maintain our technological superiority, is firmly entrenched in the business world.

But anecdotes aside, the data simply don’t support this view.