Immigration Is at the Heart of U.S. Competitiveness

When 11-year-old Mohamad Ali emigrated from Guyana to live in the United States, he had never seen an escalator before. He went on to become a U.S. citizen, earn engineering degrees from Stanford, and work for Hewlett-Packard and IBM. Eventually, he became the CEO of the data protection company Carbonite. Ali believes that the U.S. draws its global competitive advantage from its openness to new people and new ideas. A recent study of billion-dollar startups found more than half were founded by immigrants. He argues that the country risks impeding growth in high-tech and life sciences by making it harder for top talent to arrive and compete for jobs. If immigration and travel become more restrictive, Ali says, his own company will be forced to expand its European and Canadian offices, much like Microsoft and other tech companies have done. He believes his own immigration story shows the American Dream is still alive. It is core to innovation and competitiveness, Ali says, but it must be protected.