Canada’s Attempt To Dominate Global Tech Industry Has U.S. Talent Running To The Border

The possibility of building a stable future makes Canada a viable prospect for U.S. tech workers who are living visa to visa. The Canadian tech scene is ruthlessly capitalizing on U.S. anti-immigration policies in an effort to compete with Silicon Valley.

Canadian startups are actively trying to convince U.S. companies that rely on foreign-born tech workers to relocate their people and operations to Canada.

Canada’s Global Talent Stream is a lucrative two-year pilot program introduced as part of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. The Global Talent Stream program aims to help Canadian businesses scale-up and expand their workforce with easy access to highly-skilled global talent.

Canada has positioned the program as a “timely, responsive and predictable client-focused service” that helps companies grow and compete in a global market.

The ever-growing wait times, the surge in visa denials and requests for evidence from the United States and Immigration Services (USCIS) makes employing the needed foreign-born tech talent a daunting task for U.S. businesses. The process of filling vital job roles with qualified people is consuming precious time and resources.

When businesses are no longer able to compete and reasonably operate, they will look elsewhere for more welcoming accommodations and looking elsewhere they are.

The Trump administration’s so-called “pro-business” policies and rulemaking accomplish the exact opposite as they continue to drive business and highly skilled workers out of the United States. This is not good news for Americans.

When U.S. businesses actively seek and set up satellite offices in other countries, it means there will be fewer job opportunities for U.S. citizens. It also means that America’s biggest economic asset will be lost to the countries aggressively recruiting the talent necessary for innovation and global market domination.

America needs immigrants; we are a nation of immigrants. To thrive in a global economy, we need the best people and ideas from all over the world. The reality is that changes to the H-1B visa program do not make the process more efficient or cost effective. Instead, American companies and visa applicants have found the H-1B visa program changes both confusing and costly.

Perhaps legislative change is on the horizon, as Trump’s latest H-1B tweet would lead one to believe. But the ongoing assaults to legal immigrants, especially those in the tech field, suggests otherwise.