PDF: 2962 pages, 5.2 MB - Bay Area Council Economic Institute

Global Reach
• Buy America provisions of the 2009 federal stimulus bill restrict the hiring of foreign
nationals, which limits the access of U.S. companies to the best global talent and removes
job opportunities for foreign-born graduates of U.S. universities.
• As Indian technology and other professionals now in the Bay Area see growing entrepreneurial
and investment opportunities in India, recent students and longer-term residents
are starting to return home.
• The once clear division of labor between Silicon Valley innovation and lower-end support
work done in India and elsewhere is blurring, as India becomes increasingly central
to companies’ global strategies and tech-related work, and as India’s contributions are
increasingly integrated into companies’ global strategies.
• Labor standards on the books in California—including threshold wage levels for software
programmers set during the tech bubble that trigger overtime, vacation time, and
other mandates and were specifically aimed at Indian BPO firms—invite frivolous lawsuits
and diminish tech job opportunities across the board.
This is an appropriate time for California and the Bay Area to undertake a reevaluation and redefinition
of their roles in a global economy where value is increasingly created by and distributed
across virtual borderless communities of knowledge and expertise. Even as more manufacturing
and service work that was once done in the Bay Area has migrated around the world, the
region has retained its role as a source of leading-edge technology and service innovation, as an
important source of investment capital, as a “necessary partner” for global technology enterprises,
and as a hub that integrates and leverages resources on a global scale. To sustain that role
and preserve high quality jobs in the region, the state, and the nation need to invest in ways that
enhance their competitiveness. Research and interviews for this report generated a number of
policy perspectives and suggestions which focus on:
• increased emphasis on math and science in primary and secondary education, including
magnet charter schools, stepped up recruitment of fully-credentialed teachers, local and
statewide innovation contests, and partnerships with cutting edge technology companies;
• high school level and college level business courses emphasizing entrepreneurship and
global economics alongside traditional economics and management;
• immigration reform to develop a J-1/L-1 visa program that allows graduate professionals
and researchers to take jobs and contribute to the economy without first returning home;
• immigration reform to provide a fast-track to green cards (permanent residence) for
foreign students graduating with advanced degrees from U.S. universities in priority
disciplines (such as computer science or engineering);
• development of state, federal and local strategies to bring clean technology solutions to
market, build competitive companies, and strengthen the critical mass of cleantech
activity in California;
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