browngeek

I recently read Paul Graham’s essay on “Why Startups Condense in America“. Interesting hypothesis - although I am not sure if he was addressing American grad students on why they should found startups or other governments on why they should try to recreate Silicon Valley. But thats a debate for another day.

So what is the Great Immigration Conundrum^TM and what does Graham’s essay got to do with it? Let me explain by answering these two questions.

1. Why do Indians (and other immigrants) do well in high-tech America, specifically in Silicon Valley ?

Graham says

Certainly if I had to choose between bad high schools and good universities, like the US, and good high schools and bad universities, like most other industrialized countries, I’d take the US system. Better to make everyone feel like a late bloomer than a failed child prodigy.

India has an excellent school system - education in English with focus on science and math. Most high-school students already know what they want a career in (although this is a negative - static typing - according to Graham). Unfortunately, when they enter college, they are in for a rude shock. Most Indian colleges (universites) are lacking. There is a dearth of basic infrastructure - like a reliable internet connection. Professors (lecturers as they are called) are mostly clueless (they just graduated from college) and desperately need research experience to provide quality education. Oh, needless to say, grad school is a joke.

So the smart and ambitious students realize that and choose to come to America for college and grad school. And, as we all know (and as Graham points out) American universities are waaay better. These students endup getting the best of both worlds - good schools and good universities.

And thats why Indians (and other immigrants) do well in high-tech America, specifically in Silicon Valley.

2. Why do Indians (and other immigrants) don’t do well in high-tech America, specifically in Silicon Valley ?

In the part about immigration, Graham says

Like a company whose software runs on Windows, those in the current Silicon Valley are all too aware of the shortcomings of the INS, but there’s little they can do about it. They’re hostages of the platform.

The Indian students that come to America, and get a solid university education, are in for a rude shock. No, not that Corporate America is running on Windoze. Its that INS is running Corporate America.

If the Indian student has a brilliant idea in her thesis and wants to found a startup around that idea, she can’t. INS will not allow it. You must have a greencard to do that. And how do you get a greencard? By working for big companies for 8+ years. And what happens to that student’s entrepreneurial flame in those 8 years. It dies.

Look around Silicon Valley. How many companies are founded by Indians. Only a handful. How many in the top web 2.0 startups? None. Thats a pity when there are hundreds of thousands of Indians living in America. The entrepreneurial spirit is most of them is long gone and they seem to have been convinced that the “American Dream” is to move to suburbia, buy a house with a big yard and make offsprings. And work for these companies. Companies that were founded by somebody else. Someone that is a citizen.

Yes, folks. In the current system, the immigrants will always be 2^nd-class citizens. Taxation without Representation in Silicon Valley.

And thats why Indians (and other immigrants) don’t do well in high-tech America, specifically in Silicon Valley.

Coming to America? Think again. About the Great Immigration Conundrum^TM