In an effort to gain support for his plan for immigration reform, President Barack Obama showcased the life of Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger, who was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil and relocated to California in 2004 to attend Standford University. He promptly earned his H1-B worker visa for highly skilled workers, and within eight years, he sold his company to Facebook. The acquisition earned him $1 billion dollars. By detailing this rigorous work ethic and accomplished business record of Krieger, Obama stressed an important economic aspect of his argument: every immigrant that is allowed a pathway to citizenship and a chance to participate generates revenue for our economy instead of for the economies of other countries these people might take their talents to if the United States immigration laws are too restrictive for them to be able to join in.
The two men are known acquaintances, with Krieger having been a personal invitee of Michelle Obama to the State of the Union Address in 2012. As such, it should be no surprise that the two are coordinated in an effort for immigration reform. A main platform of the president’s message is that all immigrants are united in their intention to do the hard work necessary to solve the difficult issues the country faces today; this commitment, Obama posits, is a shared patriotism.
The specifics of the President’s immigration proposals are wide-ranging and open up the specter for a fundamental shift in the country’s handling of undocumented citizens. Needing bipartisan support for his bill to pass, Obama has offered to heavily increase border security, a popular idea among conservative thinkers, and to offer green cards to all post-secondary graduates in the competitive fields of engineering, science, mathematics and technology, which is a widely endorsed platform of liberals in the legislature.
It was to those who are undecided, however, that Obama’s mention of Krieger was targeting. Anyone who might be skeptical of immigrants’ capacity for contribution will see these plain statistics and realize the need to end exclusionary practices and incorporate everybody that is willing to engage in our economy. Archaic rules that banish productive members of society need to be ended, or influential companiesmight be founded elsewhere in the future.
Because a means of massive worldwide communication was developed in the U.S. instead of abroad, all Instagram followers generate money here instead of for our competitors like China. Immigration reform will continue to facilitate American innovation by inviting great minds to stay and work there. In America, while technology companies like Instagram are being bought and sold, there are businesses in China with their only specialty being to buy Instagram followers. Because of their name recognition, Obama and Krieger don’t need to purchase Instagram followers to spread their message, which is that America has set the standard for technological growth and, with reform, should continue to.
