{"id":16189,"date":"2014-11-13T05:00:19","date_gmt":"2014-11-13T12:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tested-neuron.flywheelsites.com\/?p=16189"},"modified":"2015-02-17T13:28:32","modified_gmt":"2015-02-17T20:28:32","slug":"snapdeal-immigration-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/snapdeal-immigration-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"Snapdeal Offers a Lesson About Immigration Reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

After graduating from Wharton in 2007<\/strong>, Kunal Bahl wanted to become an entrepreneur. He couldn\u2019t get a visa, so he had to return home to India. He started Snapdeal in February 2010 with the ambition of building India\u2019s Groupon. Then he saw an even greater opportunity\u2014to turn Snapdeal into India\u2019s Amazon.com. Snapdeal already has more than 25 million customers and sells goods from 50,000 merchants. With the $625 million that Japan\u2019s Softbank has just invested in it, it is surely on its way.<\/p>\n

As Alibaba\u2019s founder, Jack Ma, is doing, Bahl is pondering which Silicon Valley companies to acquire.<\/i> Tweet This Quote<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The sad part for America is that instead of creating jobs here\u2014where he really wanted to be\u2014Bahl created thousands of jobs in India. Bahl is no longer looking to U.S. companies as his model. His new goal is to build the Indian version of Alibaba, the innovative Chinese ecommerce marketplace, which enjoys market capitalization of $275 billion. As Alibaba\u2019s founder, Jack Ma, is doing, Bahl is pondering which Silicon Valley companies to acquire. Over drinks in Mumbai last weekend, Bahl and I discussed the pros and cons of Snapdeal\u2019s acquiring Groupon, which has market capitalization of around $5 billion. We agreed that there were better Silicon Valley companies to acquire\u2014and that he should think bigger.<\/p>\n

Gone are the days when the United States was the only land of opportunity and when entrepreneurs dreamed of being acquired by a Silicon Valley company. The bigger opportunities now lie in countries such as India, China, and Brazil, and their entrepreneurs are becoming confident that they can take on Silicon Valley. The world\u2019s best and brightest students once came to study in the United States with the expectation of starting their careers and settling here. Now, upon graduation, they buy one-way tickets home.<\/p>\n

Bigger opportunities now lie in countries such as India, China, and Brazil<\/i> Tweet This Quote<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The immigration gridlock has already hurt U.S. competitiveness and will worsen the damage if our political leaders don\u2019t soon reach a compromise. The good news is that with the Republican Senate victory, immigration reform may finally have a chance.<\/p>\n

Contrary to popular belief, it isn\u2019t the Republicans who have been the barrier to skilled immigration, it is the Democrats\u2014because they demanded all or nothing, without compromise. Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.), chairman of the Immigration Task Force of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, confirmed<\/a> this to me in an online debate<\/a>. He insisted that his party would not agree to increase the numbers of visas for skilled workers unless the Republicans agreed to legalize the more than 10 million immigrants who are in the country without documentation. To make matters worse, the Democrats insisted on a path to citizenship for the undocumented, and this turned the legislation into a poison pill that the Republicans simply would not swallow.<\/p>\n

What the president needs to do now is to end the stalemate. He needs to support smaller pieces of legislation on matters in which the parties are in agreement. He shouldn\u2019t poison the waters further with tactical executive orders that put Band-Aids on the immigration mess; he should carve immigration up into pieces that are debated on their individual merits. Agreement is possible.<\/p>\n

Gone are the days when the United States was the only land of opportunity and when entrepreneurs dreamed of being acquired by a Silicon Valley company.<\/i> Tweet This Quote<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Both sides realize the importance of having more technology companies, so legislation such as the Startup Visa Act should be a no-brainer. It will allow entrepreneurs such as Kunal Bahl to start their companies in the United States and create local jobs. There is as well broad support for providing permanent-resident visas to science, technology, engineering and mathematics graduates. And then there is the issue of H1B visas for experienced engineers, doctors, and scientists. If abuse of the system can be curbed, there will be broad support for expanding the numbers of visas. The Startup Visa alone could create as many as 1.6 million jobs and boost the nation\u2019s annual gross domestic product by 1.6 percent within 10 years, according to the Kauffman Foundation\u2019s estimate<\/a>. Providing permanent resident visas to the more than one million people who are stuck in immigration limbo will allow them to buy houses and invest in their communities. Increasing the numbers of H1Bs will help to alleviate the shortage of doctors in some parts of the United States and allow Silicon Valley to hire the talent it desperately needs.<\/p>\n

The most contentious debates are over the plight of the undocumented, low-skilled workers. The Republicans and Democrats have both, in the past, supported the DREAM Act\u2014which provides basic human rights to the millions of undocumented children who live in the shadows of U.S. society. If presented with stand-alone legislation, the majority of our political leaders would surely support this. As well, both sides agree that it is impractical to deport 10 million undocumented immigrants. Compromises are possible, for example, with a new visa class that allows these people to stay in the United States legally, pay taxes, and return home when they need to. The issue of citizenship could be deferred for a few years until the wounds of the immigration battles have healed and Americans can reach for consensus on what is right and what is wrong. The immediate outcome for America and Americans in general will be very beneficial.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time for the political quagmire and stalemate to give way to compromise and good governance. Immigration reform surely cannot wait. President Obama should turn his party\u2019s Senate defeat into a victory for America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gone are the days when the US was the only land of opportunity and when entrepreneurs dreamed of being acquired by a Silicon Valley company\u2014bigger opportunities now lie in countries such as India, China, and Brazil.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":16195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[476,1547,1529],"tags":[2247,1291,410,383,359,1404],"class_list":["post-16189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-emerging-markets","category-technology","tag-article","tag-diversity","tag-emerging-markets","tag-starting","tag-tech","tag-wadhwa"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSnapdeal Offers a Lesson About Immigration Reform - UNREASONABLE<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/snapdeal-immigration-reform\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Snapdeal Offers a Lesson About Immigration Reform - 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