Immigrants Play Vital Role in U.S. Innovation, ITIF Report Finds

Immigrants play a significant role in American innovation, while women and minorities are underrepresented, according to a new report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF). In the report, the authors utilize a survey of more than 900 individuals who have contributed to the development of a notable technological innovation from 2011 to 2014, allowing them to gain additional insight on items such as their gender, ethnicity, education, funding sources, and age.

In The Demographics of Innovation in the United States, the authors take a unique approach in attempting to create a sample based toward high-level innovations, focusing on five distinct samples that, when taken together, serve as a good proxy for the most notable innovations in America. First, the authors assess R&D Magazine’s annual R&D 100 Awards from 2011 to 2014, which honor the most innovative technologies brought to market in a given year. The authors also examine “triadic patents” – those patents filed internationally in the United States, Europe, and Japan in order to guarantee worldwide intellectual property protection – across four categories: life sciences, materials science, information technology, and large technology companies. 

Because many of the innovations had more than one inventor, the sample comprises 9,757 innovators who together developed 2,651 innovations between 2011 and 2015. The researchers were able to find contact information for 6,418 of these innovators, and ultimately received a response from 923 – a response rate of 14.4 percent. While also addressing the biases inherent in this sample, the authors are able to paint a broad picture about innovators in America.

Notably, the authors find that immigrants play a vital role in American innovation. Respondents who were foreign born represented 35.5 percent of the sample, compared to 13.5 percent of the United States population as a whole. Respondents were born in 62 different countries, and at the time of innovation, 50.8 percent were naturalized U.S. citizens, 35.5 percent held green cards, and 8.9 percent held H-1B visas.  The most foreign-born innovators came from Europe (35.4 percent), followed by Southeast Asia/India (26.6 percent), and East Asia/China (20.3 percent). Furthermore, more than two-thirds of these immigrant innovators held doctorates in STEM subject. Given the importance of foreign-born STEM workers to American innovation, the authors recommend policies that strengthen and expand the immigration pipeline that allows for highly trained STEM workers to innovate in the U.S.

The authors also identify large gaps between innovators in both gender and ethnicity. Considering the sample born in the United States, more than 92 percent were white, and more than 88 percent of innovators that responded to the survey were male. Among samples, the percentage of women ranges from 21.5 percent for life sciences to just 9.7 percent from large technology companies. White innovators accounted for 75.6 percent of the sample, with individuals of Asian or Pacific Islander ethnicity representing the second largest group at 18.7 percent. To address these gaps, the authors recommend policies that would enable more women and minorities to gain STEM degrees. This would require expanded STEM education at the K-8 level – with an emphasis on disadvantaged communities – as well as stronger incentives for colleges and universities to retain students with an interest in STEM.  

Publicly traded companies were behind 59.5 percent of innovations in the sample, while private companies-backed innovations represented an additional 20.7 percent. The remaining 19.8 percent of innovations were sourced by government organizations and public research labs (12.5 percent) and universities (7.3 percent). Of triadic patents focused on the life sciences, 15.5 percent came from universities. Although triadic patents came overwhelmingly from the private sector, on average, more of the R&D 100 Award-winning innovations came from government organizations and public research labs (38.7 percent of total R&D 100 Awardees) and universities (7.9 percent).

The most innovations were from California, although Northeastern states led in the concentration of triadic patents on a per-capita basis. Massachusetts – with four times the national average – had the most triadic patents per capita, followed by Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. Of the 202 R&D 100 Awardees that provided a location, most tended to cluster around universities and government research labs in places such as: Berkeley, CA (13 R&D 100 Awards); Albuquerque or Santa Fe, NM (13); Knoxville, TN (12); and, Boston, MA (9).

More than three-fourths of innovators had advanced degrees beyond a four-year bachelor’s degree, and the median age of innovators was 47 years old. Foreign-born innovators, on average, hold more degrees than their native born counterparts and are more likely to hold Ph.Ds. The most common field for both undergraduate and graduate degrees of innovators was in engineering.

The authors conclude by noting a lack of an adequate STEM workforce holds the United States back in its pursuit to be a global leader in innovation. As a result, they recommend the United States focus intensely on expanding the supply of potential innovators by welcoming more high-skill STEM-educated immigrants and by increasing the pool of educated scientists and engineers – particularly among women and underrepresented minorities.