Research by Duke, UC-Berkeley, NYU and Harvard has revealed that immigrants founded 52 percent of start-up companies in Silicon Valley between 1995 to 2005 and filed 25.6 percents of patents in the U.S. Immigrants start companies at twice the ratio of the U.S. population. One quarter of American Nobel Prize winners since 1901 have been immigrants. One quarter of the Nobel Prizes that came to the UK were won by immigrants from outside. Today, a third of all the scientists and engineers in Silicon Valley are immigrants or foreign-born. Furthermore, 40 percent of the Ph.D. scientists working in the U.S. are foreign-born.It is not that only good things are ascribed to them. Immigrants have been blamed for everything from terrorist-created swine flu pandemic to unemployment, crimes and what have you. The natives keep thinking of solutions to keep out the immigrants. The solutions to keep them out often sees ingenious suggestions – including one that advises having them take intelligence tests! For instance, in Germany, Peter Trapp, a domestic policy expert with the ruling conservative CDU party in Berlin, said; “We have to establish criteria for immigration that really benefit our country.” In addition to adequate education and job qualifications, one benchmark should be intelligence. I am in favor of intelligence tests for immigrants. We cannot continue to make this issue taboo.“Immigrants raise the hackles of nations. The “natives” dislike this group that seems to be claiming space which the natives do not wish to share. This feeling of resentment towards immigrants results in discrimination, hate crimes and in many cases denial of even basic human rights. Natives resent the immigrants getting voting rights and access to health, education, housing and certainly the subsidies that seem to go towards supporting immigrants. Many elections are won or lost on the issue of the government being too supportive or lenient towards immigrants than the original inhabitants of the land.
Even organizations face immigrants. They face two kinds of immigrants – the ones that step in when a company acquires another or when they hire new employees. Just walk in to a company that has acquired another player and ask them about how well they have managed to engage with the minds and hearts of the employees of the acquired companies and you will see what I mean. Scratch the surface and you will see that almost all struggle with these “immigrants” and how to integrate them. There is disproportionate time and effort put in during mergers and acquisitions to blend the sales engine, the financial systems etc but not enough in taking care of integrating the immigrants who will now be part of the new landscape. So while the merger takes place smoothly on paper, the integration in the minds and hearts of the natives and immigrants rarely (if ever) happens quickly.The same thing happens when a company does not spend time integrating their new hires. We all know that new hires brought in from other companies are chosen because they bring in a fresh perspective and valuable experience from the world outside, but that is precisely why they annoy the old timers of any organization. The new hires seem to question the time honored traditions. They do not know even speak the language in which the natives communicate. Just ask an immigrant if they understand all the acronyms in their new land. No wonder they all look blank each time someone uses an acronym in a meeting and some will even interrupt to ask silly questions. The well meaning natives very often will advise the immigrants to first learn to become one of the natives and then try out new ideas. So every effort will be made to “Widget-ize” all new hires of Widgets Ltd. Unfortunately it is this very process of making the new hires fit in that can lead to an organization becoming extremely inward looking.Immigrants bring with them the lens of curiosity. They can quickly discover inconsistencies and question practices that have been time honored in their new home. They do not understand what may be obvious to natives. Yet, looking at the organization through the lenses of a new hire can be the greatest opportunity one could leverage. But that is also threatening. No wonder organizations drag their feet before they grant the freedom of speech and the right to vote, to immigrants. Just as countries debate how long the person must stay in a country to be eligible for citizenship, the organizations also have an informal understanding of how long it takes a new hire to prove their allegiance to the new employer before they are granted “citizenship”. This is the organizational equivalent of giving the immigrants the right to franchise and freedom of speech. At the risk of incurring the displeasure of few natives, this can be the single largest advantage that an organization could get.So the next time when a new hire looks fondly into the horizon and starts off saying, “When I was working for …” do not rush up to stop the rambling. Look at what new ideas you could get from the immigrant. It is an opportunity to benchmark with the world outside. Just as the nations who have integrated the immigrants well tend to gain substantially from, so do the organizations that win the minds and hearts of the new hires.
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How Do You Deal With Immigrants?
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9 responses to “How Do You Deal With Immigrants?”
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I am afraid I could not agree with you,Abhijit.Perhaps it’s no more than some sophistry.Who established these facts?It surely can’t be applied in Canada.The stats just do not add up.I will give you a specific example with Indians or should I be more specific and say Sikhs in Canada?Accuse me of pigeon -holing if really want.In a recent survey,Canadians from coast to coast established one fact and that was LESS than 28% of Canadians looked at Sikhs with a favorable eye.More than 70% of all fraud cases investigated by the Motor Vehicle Licensing Authority here were perpetrated by Sikhs.No doubt most resulted in convictions in a proper court of law.Sad reality,nothing remotely associated with racism but reality.Yes,some have done well no doubt but hey let us stay grounded in reality.Immigration,yes I am all for it but for the right reasons and yes,why should we NOT encourage people with a little more intelligence?Nothing wrong with that.Come by all means but hey,don’t cut someone off at the front of the queue.Pros alone do not make a great argument.It becomes propaganda.The cons are just as important and yes,it makes for a far more interesting debate too.And that too has nothing to do with racism.Sashi.
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Let me respond to Sashi post. Why do Canadians look at Sikhs with a less favorable eye. Most Canadians still remember that Sikhs were responsible for the 1985 Air India bombing in which 330 odd Indians lost their lives. Also note that Sikhs were attached in the U.S. post Sept 11 in 2001. Some attributed it to Sept 11. Actually a Canadian Court gave its verdict on the Air India bombing a few months before Sept 11 so most North Americans had seen bearded Sikhs on TV so when Sept 11 was supposed to be the handiwork of the Muslims, some bearded, ignorant Americans attacked anyone with a beard thinking him to be a Muslim when actually he was Sikh.
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The U.S. owes a lot of its success including in Silicon Valley to Indian migrants AND the American govt knows that. It was acknowledged in a recent paper on the U.S. economy published if I remember correctly by Mckinsey quarterly. Having said that there need to be tough laws for illegal immigration. If immigrants express disdain for local laws and people and want to recreate their own country in the country they have immigrated to (for eg Muslims in Australia) they need to be dealt with firmly.
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I suggest Sanjeev Nayyar get his facts correct first before he starts making assumptions.The (in)famous verdict where the two alleged masterminds behind the Air India bombing did not come before 9-11 but long after 9-11,actually in 2006.That of course (in the words of the ruling judge Ian Josephson)because the prosecution had a very week case.It remains the second-most expensive court case in the history of Canadian judiciary.One can safely assume that Canadians dislike of Sikhs does not stem from that fact alone.It’s an ethnic group that has acted ignorantly before the September 11th attacks and after while having absolutely nothing with the attacks itself.Yes,Sikhs were attacked in the aftermath of the twin tower attacks.Sashi.Silicon valley success can’t to attributed to Indians alone.Of course there can be no denying that stronger laws need to be in place for immigrants and non-immigrants alike.
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@Sashi & @Sanjeev:Some of the behavior of Indians that irks people from the Western cultures can be looked as the cultural lens with which we are looking at life. Just read the NY times post called In Fight for Better India, Best to Look Within http://nyti.ms/kZYLcBThese need to be examined from the differences in culture. Do refer to Geert Hofstede’s iconic model (Ref http://www.geert-hofstede.com/.Immigr)ants very often need to be looked as people who are burned their bridges (or boats) and their determination to succeed against odds leads to some of the behavior that many people in a favorable spot find unacceptable. Much of these norms of societal behavior are driven by the experience of economic choices that the person has grown up with. Besides even the child rearing practices of the society matter. Hence the children of immigrant parents often experience the conflict that comes up from the dissonance arising out of being in one culture at home and a different one outside.Just as I judge the openness of nations with the way they deal with immigrants, I would judge organizations with the way the old-timers integrate the new hires into the company.
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If it is the behavior that irks western people and that these immigrants know what it is then it is incumbent upon immigrants to rectify that,should it not be so?I mean,take all the rhetoric away and it’s not really too hard.In Canada here and it’s sad to hear but it’s astounding what immigrants have been able to get away with just on sheer virtue of political correctness.The more sad part is all the other decent Indians from Fiji are judged by the same yardstick Indians from India re judged.Sad indeed because Indians from Fiji are wonderful people.Abhijit,this ‘openness’ we talk about may become too big of a burden one day.
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Very well-read and well-informed article. According to me – just flawless! Immigration indeed is perceived in the way mentioned and can be better handled by the strategy suggested by you.
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The ‘immigrant’ metaphor is a wonderful one for organizations bringing in people from outside. What is of course even more interesting is that even when the powers decide to ‘bring in fresh air’ how they are themselves often the biggest barriers to the fresh air – the old behaviours are most burnt in within them. Breaking those patterns, that is a true act of leadership.
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Sanjeev Roy’s argument makes little sense and if it does it speaks for a very small group.In Rome do what the Romans do.Simple concept.
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