TED Community » Pedram Dahl

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A comment on Conversation: Can immigration increase innovation? If so, how?

Jan 30 2012: Although I have no academic insight into the subject, I have some personal experience as a child of immigrants (and an immigrant on several occasions). To have innovation through immigration relies on the immigrants skills and capabilities combined with the host society's willingness to accommodate new outlooks and ways of doing things (I don't merely refer to cultural accommodation, even though cultural perception precedes any other form of engagement) I don't think it is possible to look at one aspect while ignoring the other. It is therefore important for societies who want to adopt or continue merit-based immigration scheme to ensure that there are inherent social and cultural mechanism for ideas that enter from the margins (where newcomers usually find themselves).