Why Skilled Immigrants Are Leaving the U.S.

Immigration, legal or illegal, has been a political hot button in recent years. Now, it seems, many immigrants are returning home -- unfortunately, these folks are the people that the US needs to keep.

There's no question but that innovation is the key to creating and sustaining competitive advantage, whether its on the level of the individual, the organization and the country (and if this doesn't compute, flip back in your notes to Michael Porter). What appears, though, to be happening, as described in this article, is that highly skilled individuals, often from India and China, are returning home and taking their skills with them. The article puts it quite simply:

The U.S. is no longer the only land of opportunity. If we don't want the immigrants who have fueled our innovation and economic growth, they now have options elsewhere.

So, where does this leave the US economy. Well, again, I think it's pretty simple. People such as:

• Vinod Khosla (one of the founders of Sun Microsystems)
• Arun Netravali (Bell Labs and Lucent)
• C.K Prahalad (Distingiushed Professor of Management at the University of Michigan)
• Roger Y. Tsien (2008 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry and professor at the University of California - San Diego)

aren't the people that we need to pack up and leave the US.