The recent announcement by the former president donald trump to impose a $100,000 annual fee on H-1B work visas marks a substantial turn in the development of the technology industry in the United States. Engineers, scientists, programmers and data specialists from India, China, Latin America and Europe have contributed directly to the construction of global leadership that Silicon Valley represents today.
However, this new measure puts into damage that historical advantage. Trump has maintained that American companies are overly dependent on foreign talent and that this dependence, in his opinion, detracts from opportunities for local workers. This rate seeks precisely discourage the hiring of foreigners by making it drastically more expensive, forcing companies to look inward at home and prioritize training Americans.
How does this affect the talent that wants to migrate in order to develop in a market as competitive as the American one? For him Peruvian and Latin American talentThis is generally detrimental as it reduces your chances of getting high. This is a key point since it removes opportunities to develop professional profiles that can contribute to the development of local industry in their countries.
The impact will be felt stronger in the long term in the startup creation or medium-sized companies that seek to offer a product or service supported by technology. Furthermore, we would be wasting the possibility of having talent that matters. new methodologies, tools and processes for the development of key industries within Peru.
Internationally, large corporations such as Amazon, Microsoft or Meta They could absorb the expense, but they would also have complications due to barriers to incorporating good talent from outside. He tech professionals market in Peru It is very undervalued, since we have super-trained professionals who can measure themselves against the largest giants in the world.
The risk is evident, since the leadership of the United States in the technological field has always been based on its ability to attract the brightest minds on the planet. More than 50% of high-value startups in the US have been founded or co-founded by immigrants or children of immigrants. Therefore, introducing measures that penalize qualified immigration It is, in that sense, giving up one of the competitive advantages.
Lastly, the protectionismin the attempt to protect national work, can end up weakening the basis that supports it and reduce opportunities for tech sector in important markets such as Latin America. This may mark the moment when the United States begins to lose, not because of lack of capital or infrastructure, but because of lack of talent willing to build industry within its borders.
