Giving immigrants more opportunities to succeed in innovative fields is a good idea, especially since the biggest innovations tend to come from immigrants and not graduates (or dropouts) of elite colleges, according to new research.

Silicon Valley tends to be a pretty insular place these days, though some technology firms are working under public pressure to diversify their pool of workers. Diversity is a good idea, since according to a new study by a Washington D.C. think tank, a huge percentage of innovators in the U.S. have been immigrants.

Immigrants Are Huge Source of Innovation

The real stories of Mark Zuckerberg, Evan Spiegel, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates have birthed a myth of the brilliant, U.S.-born college dropout creating entirely new, innovative products and technologies. But new research shows highly-educated, hard-working immigrants are more likely to impact the U.S. economy and culture with new innovations.

A study released recently by the Washington D.C.-based think tank Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) found that highly educated immigrants play an "outsized role" in driving progress in technology in America, even as minorities tend to be significantly underrepresented in the industry.

The report, "The Demographics of Innovation in the United States" surveyed over 6,400 innovators who had impacted technology with new ideas in three fields: information technology, life sciences and materials sciences. The study sought to find out more about these individuals, their ages and their backgrounds.

Importantly, according to the exhaustive survey's findings, more than one-third (35.5 percent) of major innovators in the U.S. were born outside of the country. Another 10 percent were born in the U.S. but to at least one foreign-born parent. And more than 17 percent of innovators were not U.S. citizens at all, a finding that helps explain Silicon Valley's recent support for Obama's DACA and DAPA executive actions, soon to be tested by the Supreme Court.

Big Factors Are Education, Demographics, Location

These innovators didn't appear out of the blue with no training or expertise. In fact, most of them had years of education, with about 80 percent having at least one advanced degree and 55 percent specifically having a PhD in a field related to science, technology, engineering or mathematics -- the so-called "STEM fields."

Those findings about training and education go against another myth, the "rags to riches" immigrant story, but taken as a whole, the study shows how important a reformed, working immigration system could be to the future of the U.S. economy, which increasingly depends on technological innovation to keep pace in the global market.

Some bad demographic news for U.S.-born Latinos and Latinas came from the study as well. It found that only 8 percent of U.S.-born innovators came from underrepresented backgrounds, such as Asian, African-Americans, Latino, Native American and other minority communities. Only 12 percent of U.S.-born innovators were women, and that proportion only grew by 5 percent when innovators born outside the country were included.

Geography plays a role as well, with most U.S. innovation occurring in -- you guessed it -- Silicon Valley, the San Francisco area and San Diego.

Policy Changes Can Spur More Innovation

As a result of the study, the ITIF recommended policymakers do a better job of enabling women and underrepresented minorities to gain STEM degrees -- something that may be helped by the recent expansion of the White House's TechHire program, on which Latin Post recently reported.

ITIF also recommended changes to the immigration system to enable foreign-born STEM workers to better access education in the U.S. college system and to enable them to legally stay in the country after attaining their degrees.

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