EuroWire March 2017

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March 2017 38
Technology
A Canadian counter-proposal: welcoming
technicians stranded by a US order barring
citizens of seven majority-Muslim nations
“Canada’s technology community is urging Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau to snap up industry workers caught in US President
Donald Trump’s border crackdown, saying that embracing
diversity drives innovation and the economy.”
When Gerrit De Vynck of Bloomberg News led his report,
several major airports were still engulfed in chaos following the
issuance of Mr Trump’s executive order denying entry to the USA
to citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
The overture to Mr Trudeau was in the form of an open
letter from dozens of Canadian tech chief executive o cers
recommending that Canada o er entry visas, e ective
immediately, to those hit by the order. (“Canada CEOs Urge
Trudeau to Take Rejected US Tech Workers,” 30th January)
Calling Mr Trump’s order “extreme,” one of the signers, John Chen
of BlackBerry Ltd (Waterloo, Ontario), urged that Canada persist
with its more “embracing policy” of o ering visas to quali ed
people. The reference was to last year’s move by the Trudeau
government to create a fast-track visa programme enabling
tech companies to bring workers to Canada in two weeks,
leap-frogging the usual months-long bureaucratic slog.
“In choosing to hire, train, and mentor the best people in the
world, we can build global companies that grow our economy,”
wrote the CEOs, in a frank appeal to self-interest. Their letter
noted the contributions of earlier newcomers. Mr Chen wrote
on BlackBerry’s blog that more than half of the company’s
executive team and many of its employees, including himself,
are immigrants.
The tech leaders’ letter prompted a fast response from Ottawa.
Within hours of its publication, Canada’s immigration minister
Ahmed Hussen – an immigrant from Somalia – announced that
any traveller stranded in Canada by Mr Trump’s order would be
granted a temporary residence permit.
† As for the Canadian CEOs’ opposite numbers in the USA, tech
leaders there also condemned the USA ban on grounds that
immigrant engineers and software coders are essential to
their businesses and entrepreneurship. According to a paper
from the National Foundation for American Policy, cited by
Bloomberg, some 51 per cent of American companies valued
at more than $1 billion had an immigrant co-founder.
Mr De Vynck observed that Google, Microsoft and Amazon
all have sizable o ces in Canada and are knowledgeable in
immigration matters. He pointed out that these American
rms have been known to bring workers to Canada
from South Asia or Eastern Europe “to get them closer to
headquarters” while they wait to clear the more stringent
USA visa procedures.
The British government’s plans for
a sweeping new industrial strategy
will privilege the tech sector
“That is why the government is spot on to place investment in
tech at the heart of its modern industrial strategy. The ‘industries
of the future’ will be tech enabled and tech driven. Digital
transformation is the future.”
The British government initiative welcomed by Antony Walker,
deputy chief executive of TechUK, is Prime Minister Theresa
May’s sweeping new plan, announced on 23rd January, for
boosting productivity across every industrial sector of the
United Kingdom. As reported by City AM technology editor
Lynsey Barber, Mrs May pledged to place the tech sector at the
heart of the strategy, with $5.9 billion funding for research and
development into smart energy technologies, robotics, arti cial
intelligence and 5G mobile network technology.
This would be a bigger increase than voted by any Parliament
since 1979, Downing Street said. But Mr Walker sees the
investment as very broadly bene cial, driving innovation and
boosting productivity across all industries. He told Ms Barber,
“In tomorrow’s economy, every sector will be a tech sector.”
(“Here’s What UK Tech Thinks Of Theresa May’s Modern Industrial
Strategy,” 23rd January)
City AM political reporter Mark Sands took note of the general
enthusiasm prompted by the prime minister’s industrial
strategy Green Paper, with the business community throwing
its weight behind the government’s call for businesses and
workers “to help us create a high-skilled economy where
every place can meet its potential.” (“British Business Groups
Welcome Theresa May’s Wide-Ranging Industrial Strategy,”
23rd January).
Adam Marshall, director general of the British Chambers
of Commerce, and Terry Scuoler, chief executive of the
manufacturers association EEF, both called the plan “an
important rst step” towards more collaboration between
government and industry; while the Federation of Small
Businesses welcomed $212 million of funding for the new
Institutes of Technology.
Transatlantic Cable
Image: www.bigstockphoto.com Photographer Zsolt Ercsel