How Trump’s visa crackdown could help Hong Kong and China’s tech hubs
Start-up communities in Hong Kong and China could benefit from a chillier reception to foreign information technology workers in the US
Donald Trump’s pledge to tighten up the working visa policy could prove to be a boon for Asian technology hubs, says a United States immigration law specialist.
Reaz Jafri, the head of immigration for United States and Asia at international commercial law firm Withers, said restrictions to the H-1B visa programme, the skilled workers category used by many workers in Silicon Valley, could damage the talent pool as foreigners blocked from the visa programme opt to join the start-up communities in other countries.
“If they’re not able to go to the US, they’ll just start up in China. And I think you’ll see more entrepreneurs doing things in China, and there could be a shift,” Jafri said during an interview in Hong Kong. “The interest was already there. And if we [the United States] become more restrictive, then that will only increase.”
Jafri was in mainland China meeting with clients, and said there was a lot of apprehension that things could get more difficult under the incoming Trump administration, as companies that had been considering going to the United States had been rethinking their plans.
Ideas are not going to wait. People have an idea today, and if they can’t do it today, then they’ll just do it over here
Foreigners helped to launch more than half of Silicon Valley start-ups now valued at US$1 billion or more, according to a National Foundation for American Policy study conducted this year. Meanwhile two-thirds of workers in computing and maths occupations in two Silicon Valley counties were born outside the United States, Bloomberg reports.