Corporate Briefing: Borderless Economics - The Surprising Effects of Global Migration

Mass migration is changing the way we live, learn and do business. A century ago, migrants crossed an ocean and never saw their homelands again. Today, they call or Skype home the moment their flight has landed. Thanks to cheap travel and easy communication, immigrants stay in contact with their native countries, creating powerful cross-border networks, uncovering and creating business and job opportunities that would never have existed had they not traversed global boundaries.

In Borderless Economics: Chinese Sea Turtles, Indian Fridges and the New Fruits of Global Capitalism, Robert Guest, The Economist’s Business Editor, travels the world, observing how immigrant networks create wealth, spread ideas and foster innovation. In this Corporate Briefing, Mr. Guest will discuss key business and economic findings, including:

• how Indians in America and India build the frugal technology that could ultimately save Medicare
• how the “sea turtle” phenomenon – young Chinese returning home from their studies in the West – will eventually give us democracy in China
• that the flow of educated migrants from poor countries to rich ones – the so-called “brain-drain” – actually reduces global poverty
• that if the United States keeps its borders open and taps into the powerful global diaspora network, it will remain the world’s most powerful nation indefinitely.
• how migration, for the all the disruption it causes, makes the world happier – and wealthier.

Attendees will gain macroeconomic insights into the way global immigration patterns shape the business landscape, workforce, and flow of information and ideas in the coming decades. Joe Morgan, Chief Investment Officer for Silicon Valley Bank Asset Management, will moderate the discussion. Copies of Borderless Economics will be available for purchase at the event.

Co-sponsored by Silicon Valley Bank, Asia America MultiTechnology Association (AAMA), Bay Area Council, btrax, Inc., HYSTA (Hua Yuan Science and Technology Association), and The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE).

For questions about this Corporate Briefing, please contact April Mo or Kate Ryge at (415) 421-8707.