Innovation knows no borders, opportunity shouldn’t either.
In the US, immigrants are behind 55% of unicorns, 65% of top AI companies, and 45% of Fortune 500 companies. Their fingerprints are everywhere:
Steve Jobs, son of a Syrian immigrant.
Elon Musk, born in South Africa and reportedly worked illegally in the US on a student visa.
Sergey Brin, who fled the Soviet Union and co-founded Google as a refugee child.
Jerry Yang, a Taiwanese immigrant who co-founded Yahoo after arriving in the US at age 10 with limited English.
And these are just some names that come to mind. Behind the scenes, immigrants now make up nearly 1 in 5 US workers, and are responsible for over one-third of America’s innovative output across industries, not just in tech, but also in medicine and chemistry.
The US needs 1 million more STEM workers in the next decade. But with international student visas under threat and many immigrants facing uncertain legal status, the country risks sending a mixed message to the very talent it depends on.
Across the Atlantic, the UK faces a similar inflection point.
Keir Starmer recently warned Britain risks becoming an “island of strangers,” echoing rising public unease around immigration. In 2024, the government announced that net migration had nearly halved, even as it pledged more visas for “highly skilled” tech workers. Yet many in the industry remain unconvinced.
Tech leaders like Barney Hussey-Yeo (Cleo) and Nicolai Chamizo (Incore Invest) have voiced concerns that the proposed anti-immigrant changes are already deterring global talent, particularly machine learning engineers, many of whom are reconsidering whether the UK is a viable long-term base.
The Tech Future Taskforce found that UK tech is more elitist than Law or Finance, with just 9% of employees from lower socio-economic backgrounds, compared to 29% in Finance, 23% in Law, and 40% across the general population.
This isn’t merely a pipeline problem. Shrinking talent pools, structural barriers, and inward-looking immigration rules threaten to stall the very growth that both countries claim to prioritize.
But it’s not just about people. It’s also about capital.
Investment in UK start-ups has dropped to a post-pandemic low. Many early-stage founders are now eyeing the US, drawn by deeper capital pools and a stronger ambition narrative.
A TMT investor I know recently relocated to Singapore and said bluntly:
“The UK is a low-growth country.”
It’s a harsh assessment, but not without nuance.
The current UK government has made growth a clear ambition. With Tech Nation acquired by Founders Forum Group in 2023 and the launch of the London AI Hub in 2025, there are encouraging signs of momentum. Entrepreneurs First’s Matt Clifford has been appointed as Keir Starmer’s AI Opportunities Adviser, with a mandate to lead a “revolution” in public services.
Digital strategy efforts are underway — from investments in compute infrastructure and the National Data Library to the AI Opportunities Plan. But these initiatives have yet to yield many meaningful, tangible results. On the ground, visa friction and funding gaps continue to send mixed signals to the talent and founders the UK claims to want.
Some, however, still believe in the power of immigration as a growth engine.
One of them is venture capitalist Semyon Dukach, himself a former immigrant founder. Now leading One Way Ventures, a VC fund dedicated to backing immigrant entrepreneurs across the US and Europe, he put it best:
“Immigration will be the deciding factor in Europe’s innovation race.”
And Europe is paying attention.
Germany just passed a law in June 2024 allowing foreign residents to apply for dual citizenship after just five years, a sharp contrast to the UK’s move to double the wait for Indefinite Leave to Remain from 5 to 10 years.
France is stepping up, too. The French Tech Visa is far more accessible than the UK and US visa routes. Station F, the world’s largest startup campus, recently hosted the AI Action Summit, with OpenAI’s Sam Altman among the key figures in attendance. Just as the UK has London Tech Week, France has VivaTech, Europe’s largest tech event and a statement of ambition.
In the AI race, talent is the true differentiator.
Immigrants don’t need pity. We need platforms.
A friend summed it up:
“It’s a sh*t feeling when you just want to get on and do things, but have to go through processes like this.”
Immigration shouldn’t just be a political issue. It’s a strategic lever.
If countries want to build resilient innovation ecosystems, they need to attract top talent and remove friction, rather than building walls based on birthplace.
With special thanks to my gay best friend and my friends in tech and policy for their sharp eyes and feedback.
On a personal note:
As an immigrant founder, I wouldn’t have believed in myself without the support of LSE Generate, my university incubator. They backed me through some of my toughest moments. I was the first in my master’s cohort to launch a startup — an exciting, but isolating position to be in.
I’m also deeply grateful to Ash Rust from Sterling Road, who took a chance on me and coached me for a full year. And to Tim Tkachenko and the Founders Running Club — serving as the London Chapter Leader has been a grounding force during a very uncertain time.
Fun fact: The cover photo is a picture I took with the Hamilton poster back in 2019. Can’t believe it’s been that long!
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