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 For
the first time, according to Bloomberg Businessweek's demographic data assimilated from 2008 to 2012,
Asian Americans became the majority tech workforce constituents in California's Silicon Valley: 50.1% vs. 40.7%
for Whites. The map to the left (click it for full-size version) shows where The Valley's immigrant
(foreign and domestic) workforce comes from. Circle size indicates the relative number
of people and distance from the center indicates how far they have traveled to get there. The standout circle
represents immigrants from Mexico, which is interesting since this map purportedly reports on "Tech Immigrants: A
Map of Silicon Valley's Imported Talent." I could be wrong, but I seriously doubt that all - or even the majority
- of those workers write software or design circuits. My guess is that just as 'green industry workers*' include the
people who maintain the lawns and collect trash in wind energy and electric car companies' offices are counted along
with those who actually design and build the products, the "Tech Immigrants" data included in the map is similar.
Ditto for Texas and Arizona. According to the map, 1/3 of startups during the 2008-2012 timespan were founded by Indian
Americans. In 2011, 64% of The Valley's foreign born immigrants had at least a Bachelor's degree - compared with only
26% for U.S. born. Again, I find the Mexico statistic suspect since those folks are foreign-born. Last year saw the
largest net inbound migration of tech workers to Silicon Valley (13,766) in a decade. Silicon Valley has been much
criticized lately for their supposedly
inequitable workforce (too many White males) makeup, so this result should make a lot of people happy.
* U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has a formal definition of a 'green
job." Many reports have shown that broad interpretation is tolerated to allow inclusion
of just about any job that is in any manner affiliated with workers who actually produce goods
or services that an honest interpretation would allow. It pumps up the numbers that politicians can cite when
pontificating about their efforts.
Posted June 11, 2014
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