The Land of Opportunity

The other week, I had the opportunity to celebrate the 25th anniversary of a colleague's first arrival in the US.  Much like many other immigrants from India, he left his home to come to the US to attend graduate school.  Between the friends that he made and the future life that he envisioned for himself, he decided to stay here and take the long, complicated path to becoming an American citizen.

In taking pictures at the celebration of this silver anniversary and hearing from so many people from his past, I was struck by how his story was similar to that of tens of thousands of other graduate students in science and engineering.  (I found a Congressional report that provides statistics on foreign student enrollments in graduate programs and immigration of scientists and engineers to the US.)  Having worked in the pharmaceutical industry in India, he enrolled at the University of Maryland to obtain his Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences.  Thanks to an internship with Glaxo, he has now worked for Glaxo (now GlaxoSmithKline, aka GSK) for almost two decades.

In the post-9/11 world, there are many fears about terrorism and, by extension, immigration.  But allowing these fears to prevent the US from bringing in promising students would be a travesty for those students--and for the US.  A Harvard Business Review blog post focused on innovation pointed out that "76% of patents awarded to the top 10 patent-producing U.S. universities that year had at least one foreign-born inventor" and "more than 40% of Fortune 500 companies operating in 2010 were founded by immigrants or their children — including some of the most well-known brands, from Apple and IBM to Disney and McDonalds."

More important to me than the economic impact of immigration is the personal impact.  The immigrants that I've had the good fortune to meet (both at work and outside the workplace) have been caring, intelligent, humble people who are focused on the  important things in life--family, friends, and meaningful work.  My life would be much emptier without them.

Congrats to that wonderful co-worker and his 25 years in the US--and to all my immigrant friends. Thanks for making my world a better place.