Article
7 min read
Supporting High-skilled Immigration: Policy Summit Insights
Immigration

Author
Jemima Owen-Jones
Published
November 06, 2024
Last Update
January 31, 2025

Key takeaways
- Immigrants drive innovation, contributing significantly to patents, tech startups, and Fortune 500 companies. Retaining them is vital for US economic and tech leadership.
- Outdated immigration policies hurt talent retention, but bipartisan support exists to modernize them, especially for STEM workers, to keep the US competitive.
- Businesses can advocate for reform by highlighting their needs and the direct benefits to American industry.
Speakers
- Zeke Hernandez, Professor, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
- Heidi Heitkamp, Former US Senator (D-ND)
- Moderated by Todd Heine, Founder of Legalpad (now Deel Immigration)
Curious how high-skilled migration and the political space are impacting innovation and economic growth? Watch Deel’s Future of Policy Summit on-demand here, or read on for the full panel recap.
In this panel discussion, moderated by Todd Heine, Founder of Legalpad (now Deel Immigration), speakers Zeke Hernandez, Professor, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and Heidi Heitkamp, former US Senator (D-ND), discussed the following topics:
- Retaining skilled immigrant talent
- Economic contributions and growth through immigration
- The private sector’s role in advocating immigration reform
The need to retain immigrant talent
Heidi Heitkamp, former US Senator (D-ND), began by explaining that there is significant bipartisan agreement on retaining skilled graduates, particularly in fields like physics, to foster innovation and research in the US. The notion of attaching green cards to diplomas for foreign-born graduates is supported, but broader immigration issues, such as undocumented individuals and chain migration, complicate the political resolution of these agreements.
“...if we train someone to be a PhD in physics, let’s keep them in this country. We don’t care where they were born. We want them to be innovating and researching for American companies on American soil. And this has become an even bigger area with the advent of AI.”
“70% of all foreign-born graduates of PhD and post-doc programs want to stay in this country, and the argument that you’ll get on both slides is let’s staple a green card to those diplomas and move forward,” Senator Heitkamp continued.
Immigrants as key contributors to innovation
To back Senator Heitkamp’s point, Professor Zeke Hernandez at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania shared how immigration contributes to societal success for companies and the broader economy. He highlighted the importance of high-skilled immigrants, noting that they are major founders of tech companies and responsible for a significant share of patents and innovation in the US.
“Immigrants are just 16% of the innovative workforce, but they’re responsible for 36% of all patents in the US, so they punch way above their weight.”
“The supply of skills and talent in STEM fields and science and engineering is disproportionately provided by immigrants. For example, they’re a third of all science and engineering workforce, but of those who have graduate degrees, they’re nearly half, and they’re more than half in key sectors like AI, biotech, and other things that…are essential for our economy,” Hernandez added.
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The role of immigration in economic growth
Immigrants also help companies expand into foreign markets and tailor their products accordingly. Overall, the presence of immigrants leads to a larger and more diversified economy, creating jobs and prosperity for all, which garners bipartisan support for immigration policies.
“My research has shown that hiring immigrants is critical for companies to expand into foreign markets, to better tailor their products into foreign markets, to better be able to attract talent from other markets. And so, as you can see, and that’s just a sampler, without this talent, our companies, our economy would be significantly worse off,” Hernandez explained.
Senator Heitkamp agreed, noting how deporting undocumented immigrants could have a devastating impact on the US economy.
“We have this idea of what makes the economy work, but if we deported millions of people today who are undocumented, it would collapse the American economy, especially in areas like affordable housing construction. We need to make a bigger and broader argument about the economic advantage, but we also need to lead for those people who may want to stay here,” Senator Heitkamp urged.
The need for private sector advocacy in immigration reform
Zeke Hernandez then discussed companies’ role in advocating for immigration reform. He emphasized the importance of collaboration between the private sector and policymakers to effectively push for reforms and suggested exploring steps companies can take in this advocacy effort.
“...we haven’t updated the number or types of visas that we give in this country since 1990…We only give 140,000 employment-based green cards per year…my state of Pennsylvania alone could use all of them… We only get 85,000 H1B visas when companies are demanding more than half a million of them per year. So when you get that mismatch, you get all kinds of distortions,” Hernandez explained.
Zeke Hernandez shares research that indicates that not hiring skilled immigrants negatively impacts the US economy, as these individuals often seek opportunities in countries like Canada, India, and China. Wharton’s Brita Glennon has highlighted how favorable policies in Canada are attracting entrepreneurs away from the US. The complexity of the immigration system poses further challenges.
“When I talk to managers, they tell me they’d rather have a prostate exam than go through the complication of hiring an immigrant given how difficult it is…platforms like Deel can smooth out the process, remove the friction, and allow companies to do what they do,” Hernandez enthused.
Senator Heitkamp concurred. She emphasized the urgent need for policy changes, sharing stories from North Dakota businesses that face challenges due to skilled workers, specifically engineers trained at NDSU, being unable to stay in the US due to visa issues.
Senator Heitkamp stressed the importance of not just focusing on local needs but also understanding the competitive disadvantage posed by sending trained individuals back to their home countries.
“We’re training in our great universities, incredible workers, incredible minds, and sending them home to compete against us. The story can’t just be, what do I need, but what are my competitors overseas getting as a result of our training and our universities that now I’m going to have to compete against?” Senator Heitkamp warned.
Senator Heitkamp values Deel’s contribution to assisting American businesses retain migrant talent; however, she emphasizes that high costs will persist unless immigration policies are updated to better support the economy.
“Deel is doing a great job helping American business and helping expand hopefully our opportunities for exports, being more competitive, but it’s still, the cost is still way too high. And so we need to streamline the process. We need those voices of business in America, especially manufacturing concerns, research concerns, to be telling the story every day. And eventually that will create a momentum that will hopefully move policy forward as it relates to getting an immigration policy that can help grow the American economy into the future.”
Shifting the immigration narrative
Todd Heine asked how to shift the immigration narrative to highlight its core benefits, focusing on both economic and social aspects.
Zeke Hernandez explained that today’s headlines are dominated by two stories about immigration: the villain story and the victim story.
“The villain story is this idea that immigrants are here to take your job, undermine your security, and destroy American culture…the other side appeals to the idea that immigrants are these pitiful souls who are very needy… that it’s gonna cost us a lot to do the morally right thing. And so what happens is in the court of public opinion, it comes down to fear versus pity. And in politics, fear will always beat pity,”
Zeke Hernandez argues that the business community should shift its message about immigrants away from fear and pity and highlight the positive contributions immigrants make to the economy and communities. He advocates for a narrative that appeals to self-interest and encourages companies to advocate for immigrant interests.
“Immigrants don’t need your fear. Immigrants don’t need your pity. Immigrants bring all the things that you and I want for a successful economy, for a successful business, and for a thriving community, not just economically but also culturally in terms of demographic balance,” Hernandez exclaimed.
“...when you can go back and look at history, you’ve got to acknowledge we haven’t been the open arms society historically, but we’ve always overcome those biases, recognizing the critical nature of immigration in our economy.”
Hernandez continued, “We have many more jobs in my state than we have people who can fulfill them. That reduces our opportunity for growth in state domestic product is curtailing American domestic product. We’ve got to get people back to work. We’ve got to figure out the system…”
“… in 15 to 20 years, immigration will actually be popular politically, not out of pity, out of sheer demographic desperation and because of geopolitical competition. So my prediction is that in about 20 years, immigration will be something that both parties really want just because we need it so desperately,” Hernandez concluded.
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About the author
Jemima is a nomadic writer, journalist, and digital marketer with a decade of experience crafting compelling B2B content for a global audience. She is a strong advocate for equal opportunities and is dedicated to shaping the future of work. At Deel, she specializes in thought-leadership content covering global mobility, cross-border compliance, and workplace culture topics.