Nathan Bomey: Visa policy threatens Michigan economy

In a post-industrial, global economy, the most vital asset for companies is talent.

So it’s remarkable that U.S. immigration policy forces tens of thousands of high-skilled foreign workers to leave this country every year, effectively handing an incredible advantage to foreign competitors.

Lest you think this is simply a Silicon Valley problem, think again.

Metro Detroit, in fact, had the seventh-highest number of high-tech immigrants with H-1B visas in the U.S. in 2013, according to a Brookings Institution study released last week.

With 7,443 H-1B workers, metro Detroit has more high-tech immigrants than the high-tech Seattle region (7,363), the flourishing Boston area (7,076) and the famed Research Triangle region (6,730) in North Carolina.

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