Immigration and Prosperity [Guest Blogger: Alison Kemper]

According to an article in yesterday’s New York Times, transfers from emigrants to their home countries is an enormous economic phenomenon.

Posted by Kevin Stolarick for Alison Kemper

Flight of the Creative Class - Microsoft Edition

Microsoft is setting up a new software development center in Vancouver, Canada.  Talent and especially US visa restrictions are the reason.

"For the time being, it's a centre for great talent. We're using it as a place to locate talent rather than to get a specific piece of work done," Sharif Khan, vice president of human resources of Microsoft Canada, told CBCNews.ca ... "It's such an amazing place to attract great talent to," he said. "Talk about a hub, a great place to live for people, a sort of diverse and inclusive location with great infrastructure...."There's a restriction on the number of visas the company can get for foreign employees in the U.S.," he said. "Canada's slightly more inclusive in that respect."

It's pretty clear from the story this is a real research facility, not a back office, geared to attract top talent from Canada, Asia-Pacific and the world. Vancouver is close to Microsoft's Redmond, Washington headquarters just outside Seattle. So the development work, the salaries and tax revenues go to Canada not the US. And of course those all important technology spillovers and clustering get built in Vancouver strengthening its already significant research base and university infrastructure.

The full story is here (hat tips: Wendy Waters, Ken Firestone)

Flight of the Creative Class (Chinese Cooks Edition)

It's not just scientists and entrepreneurs we're locking out, it's Chinese cooks. Writing in today's NYT, the Zagats point out that immigration restrictions are hurting Chinese food in America.

[T]he principal obstacle to improving Chinese fare here is the difficulty of getting visas for skilled workers since 9/11. Michael Tong, head of the Shun Lee restaurant group in New York, has said that opening a major Chinese restaurant in America is next to impossible because it can take years to get a team of chefs from China. Chinese restaurateur Alan Yau planned to open his first New York City restaurant last year but was derailed because he was unable to get visas for his chefs. If Henry Kissinger could practice “Ping-Pong diplomacy,” perhaps Condoleezza Rice could try her hand at “dumpling diplomacy”?

Google Testifies on Immigration

Great video of Google's VP for People Operations Laszlo Bock -- a Romanian immigrant -- testifying on Capitol Hill regarding the practical benefits of immigration to Google and the US. It is a great testimony and confirms much of what we know on immigration and talent. People need to see this.

posted by David

Icky Thump

Immigration is becoming the defining political issue of the creative age. Here, the White Stripes take it on:

Hat Tip: Tyler

 

Posted by Amanda.

Creative Britain

James Purnell, a Minister in Britain's government and of course an MP, slated to rise in the Brown government lays out the case for a creative policy.

... I therefore want to set an ambitious but achievable goal today: to make Britain the world’s creative hub. To meet that goal, there are two questions we need to answer: what makes Britain creative, and how can we turn that creativity into industrial success.   In other words, how can we turn talent into hits and hits into profits.

The whole agenda here is a must read. Whether you agree or not, look at how he sees Britain as the world's creative hub. He notes the US size, but says Britain is nimbler and is stronger pound for pound. I have been saying for a long time sooner or later someplace, somewhere will figure out how to leverage the emerging creative economy and build real policy infrastructure which can accelerate its growth. I have been also saying it is not likely to be China or India but a smaller, nimbler country or region or combination of regions. Lots of places have assets  - could be Britain, or Canada, or Sweden or some combination of Scandinavian regions or Australia or New Zealand.

But the real question is this: Could you even imagine a US Senator or Congress person or member of the Executive Branch who can even begin to think this way. Name one? What does that say about America's longer-run competitive advantage?

Flight of the Creative Class

The Washington Post asks:

Would America open its doors for the next Albert Einstein? Under the new immigration bill, the answer is maybe, but maybe not.

(Hat tip: Rob Greenhalgh)

Millions of British Hate Their Jobs

While cruising around the Chief Happiness Officer blog I read an article that finds that 2 of 3 of British workers are unhappy in their current jobs and more than half of them would gladly take less money to work a job that makes them feel better about themselves. "Two in three people said they were "unfulfilled", "miserable" or "drifting" in their jobs and more than half claimed they would happily earn less money in a role that made them feel better about themselves." Some are calling this ideals driven job 'Zenployment.'

Do you feel like the Brits? Would you give up salary for more meaning and fulfillment? Have you done it already?

posted by David

Outsourcing and Jobs

Robert Samuelson writes:

Remember the great "offshoring" debate? It was all the rage a few years ago. Modern communications allowed white-collar work to be zapped around the world. We faced a terrifying future of hordes of well-educated and poorly paid Indians and Chinese stealing the jobs of middle-class engineers, accountants and software programmers in the United States and other wealthy nations. Merciless multinational companies would find the cheapest labor and to heck with all the lives ruined in the process. ...Every so often, it's worth revisiting old controversies to see whether the reality matches the rhetoric. In a recent paper, Jacob Funk Kirkegaard of the Peterson Institute for International Economics did just that for offshoring (a.k.a., overseas "outsourcing"). He reviewed many studies. His conclusion: "The heated public and political debate . . . has been vastly overblown."

The study is here.

Openness and Economic Growth

I wrote about Spain's recent open immigration policy in Flight. According to a new Business Week story, it seems to be working.

Shift Happens Video

Some might find this video cheesy others interesting and fun. Decide for yourself. Shift Happens!

posted by David

Norwegian Invasion

Oh that American popular music. It's one of our enduring advantages that continues to impact the world.  But behind the mixing board for so many of today's top hits sit two Norwegians - the master-mixers and hit-makers who's audio-creations top today's charts. Just another bit of evidence that reminds us of the role of openness and foreign talent in propelling America's creative economy

Behind the vast mixing board of a dimly lighted Manhattan recording studio, two producers and their co-writer greeted a record executive who had come to hear their work. But they weren’t the Neptunes or Timbaland or Dr. Dre or anyone else ardent followers of the Top 40 would be likely to recognize. They were Tor Erik Hermansen and Mikkel S. Eriksen, wholesome-looking, milk-complexioned Norwegians who, despite having no public persona, have quickly become two of the most in-demand figures in pop music. Better known as Stargate, Mr. Hermansen and Mr. Eriksen have had an enviable string of hits since arriving in the United States two years ago, including Beyoncé’s “Irreplaceable,” Rihanna’s “Unfaithful” and “So Sick” by Ne-Yo, a rising 24-year-old singer from Las Vegas who is a frequent co-writer. (Ne-Yo’s new album, “Because of You,” released Tuesday on Def Jam, includes two Stargate songs.) Add to those Lionel Richie’s comeback single, “I Call It Love,” and “Beautiful Liar,” the steamy track by Beyoncé and Shakira, which shot to the top of the iTunes best-seller list when released in March.

I'm a huge fan of the young Norwegian, Sondre Lerche who knack for arranging reminds me of the great Burt Bacharach at times.  But American music has always had a large foreign influence. Just consider the profound role played by the Turkish-American brothers,  Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegün at Atlantic Records where they discovered and produced an incredibly diverse range of musicians from John Coltrane, and Charles Mingus to Ray Charles, The Drifters, Led Zeppelin, The Rascals, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young among countless others. Openness pays huge dividends culturally and commercially.

The full story is here.

Can Arnold be Vice-President?

Most people think Article II of  the Constitution makes it certain Arnold Schwarzenegger won't figure in the 2008 Presidential race.  As a candidate for President that's exactly right.  But have a look at the text of the relevant passage of Article II Section 1 of the Constitution which reads:

"No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States."

I don't see anything here that applies directly to the Vice-President. The language says "office of the President."

If he can clear this hurdle, Schwarzenegger as VP would greatly enhance the Republican ticket.  Just his ability to effect California could make things a whole lot more difficult for the Democrats, especially given the electoral map puts them at a disadvantage to begin with.

I've searched and searched and could not find anything that clarifies the issue of citizenship and the Vice-President. Any one out there know what really applies here?

Feel the Creative Heat (Swedish Style)

Since you liked the U.S. one so much, how about looking at the Creative Class in Sweden?  [hat tip:  Charlotta Mellander for providing the raw data for me to map.]

The map shows the "heat" being generated by the Creative Class across Sweden.  There are a few bits of warmth in the chilly north along the coast, but they don't get to share the warmth generated by their neighbors like the southern regions. The hot spots are Stockholm, Malmö, and Götebörg. I generated the map based on current Creative Class numbers and plotted the log of the total number of Creative Class members in each kommun.  The heat mapping process is based on both individual strength and proximity to others and their values, so the higher population densities favor the south.  Values are displayed relative to the other locations on each map, so the results stay consistent but the view changes with zoom levels.  For separate regional views or a better version of the map, see the attached PDF file.

Download CreativeClassSwedenHeatMap2.pdf

Posted by: Kevin Stolarick