Oh, Canada: Ongoing Exodus of Techies from US

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 3/28/2018 03:51:00 PM
Toronto is one of the places where immigrant tech workers can work without Trump seeking to deport them at each turn.
The polite term used to describe Donald Trump's anti-immigrant, whites-first policies is "nativist." I have never found that euphemism useful since, well, the real natives of the United States are actually Native Americans. On the other hand, there is next to nothing distinguishing Trump's policy preferences to those of white supremacists. Like re-tweeting British hate group videos. Like discouraging people of color from being counted in the 2020 Census--and by definition being considered "non-persons" in Trump's America--these policies are legion.

Wouldn't America be great again (like the 1950s) if all these coloreds (and women, gays, Muslims, etc.) knew their (subordinate) place in a white man's world? 

It is no surprise then that those who have worked in the United States' most dynamic sector--not coal or steel for Trump fans, by the way--are not exactly finding Trump's discriminatory immigration policies to their liking. I've featured the ongoing Silicon Valley exodus to Vancouver already before. To no one's surprise, further discrimination in immigration policies are driving even more of these folks to the United States' northern neighbors--this time to the fine city of Toronto. A Canadian tech hub, MaRS, has just conducted a survey mirroring earlier anecdotal evidence:
The survey, carried out by MaRS, a tech hub in Toronto, had a relatively small sampling — 55 companies. But its target — tech companies — hit the much-coveted professionals courted by Canada, France and other countries since Trump began raising obstacles for foreigners working and studying in the U.S.
Among the results:
  • 53% of the companies said their international applications grew over the course of 2017, and 45% hired one or more of the people who applied.
  • 82% of the applicants were from the U.S., 55% from India, and 36% from China. As for those actually hired, 55% were from the U.S., 23% from China and 9% from India.
  • These were largely tech workers — 47% of them were engineers, 24% data scientists and 10% researchers.
The reality of it--not the reality show of it--is that the United States is an increasingly unattractive place to work for knowledge workers who tend to thrive more in an open, multicultural setting. Somehow, I don't think Trump aspiring to a coal- and steel-powered economy where a tertiary education is not required--least of all in STEM disciplines where they teach you left-wing nonsense that climate change is man-made and suchlike--is attractive to footloose knowledge workers who countries the world over seek to employ.

Aside from starving the United States of workers outright given its unfavorable demographics, what Trump is also doing is starving it of the most talented and sought-after ones to appease an ever-dwindling base of, well, disgruntled (former) coal and steel workers. If there ever was a definition of "backward-looking," it's Trump.