Immigration research shows that Stephen Miller is wrong on American science

Stephen Miller, the chief architect of the Immigration policy of the Trump administration, recently said that the American scientific realization is due little to immigrants. An important set of research disputes this assertion. Miller’s argument and a vice-president declaration Jd vance About the Apollo program seems designed to justify the restrictions of the administration on international students and highly qualified immigrants.

Research does not support Miller’s statement on American science and immigration

May 31, 2025, in a press release X.comStephen Miller, the chief of staff of the White House, wrote: “In the middle of the 20th century – when the United States reached undeniable global scientific domination – there was zero net migration. From the 1920s to the 1970s, the population born abroad was half reduced while the global population doubled. (Until Hart-Celler has launched it). ”

Contrary to the involvement of Miller’s declaration, American science owes a lot to immigrants in the post-war period. Between 1945 and 1974, 16 of the 30 American winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics were immigrants, according to a national foundation for American politics analysis.

In 1954, the atomic energy law established a price recognizing the scientific achievements of atomic energy. Enrico Fermi, of Italian origin, won the first prize. Five of the first eight winners of what has become the Prix Enrico Fermi (named after his death) were immigrants. Four of the nuclear scientists who came to the United States of Europe in the 1930s then received a Nobel Prize in Physics: Felix Bloch, born in Switzerland, won it in 1952, Emilio Segre (Italy) in 1959, and Maria Mayer (Germany) and Eugene Wigner (Hungary) won the prize in 1963.

Despite the immigration restrictions imposed by the congress in 1921 and 1924, American universities and others found ways to bypass certain quotas, because fascist governments have driven out many brilliant people from Europe. Immigrants Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard signed a letter used by the economist of Russian origin Alexander Sachs to convince President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to start the Manhattan project. The breakthroughs of Niels Bohr, born in Denmark, and Enrico Fermi were crucial to develop the atomic bomb. In the end, immigrant scientists and born in the United States working together have transformed theory into reality in the race to build the bomb before Nazi Germany.

Between 1945 and 1974, 15 of the 36 American Nobel Prizes in Medicine, or 42%, were awarded to immigrants. It only tells a part of the story. Albert Sabin, an immigrant from Poland, and Jonas Salk, the son of an immigrant, developed the vaccines that ended polio as a threat to the Americans. The two men were in America due to family immigration. “Without Sabin and Salk, American children would continue to be paralyzed for life by polio,” said Michel Zaffran, director of polio eradication to the World Health Organization, in an interview. “Their contribution is simply immeasurable.”

Immigrants have received 40% of Nobel Prizes won by Americans in chemistry, medicine and physics since 2000, according to an NFAP analysis (update in prices 2024).

The 1924 immigration law weakened American science

The 1924 immigration law, which reduced the flow of immigrants by around 90% and blocked the Jews, the Eastern Europeans and the Asians, has proven to be disastrous economically for America. According to research By economists at New York University Petra Moser and Shmuel San, restrictive immigration quotas of the 1920s have considerably reduced the invention in the United States.

“After the quotas, American scientists produced 68% less patents in the pre-quota fields of scientists born in the ESE (Oriental and immigrants from South Europe) compared to the pre-quota areas of other American scientists,” write Moser and San. “The effects varying over time show a sharp drop in the invention of American scientists in the 1930s, which persisted in the 1960s.”

Moser and San said the results show that American scientists have benefited from the presence of immigrant scientists but suffered after American immigration restrictions blocked their entry.

“An analysis at the business level of patent changes reveals that companies that employ scientists from ESEs (immigrants from Eastern Europe and South) in 1921 created 53% of inventions less after quotas”, according to Moster and San. “A text analysis of American patents indicates that the invention has also decreased more widely. After quotas, 23% of American patents less describe the inventions in the ESE fields (Eastern and Southern European Immigrant) compared to other areas. ”

Upenn Wharton economy teacher Zeke Hernandez said that we would expect similar consequences today if the American immigration policy blocks the entry of international students and scientists and engineers born abroad.

“The American innovation machine would be decimated,” said Hernandez. “Sixteen percent of inventors in the United States were born abroad, but they represent 36% of all patents.” He stresses that immigrants are 80% more likely than the United States to start new businesses, and they are Founders of more than half of startups which reach an evaluation of $ 1 billion. More than 70% of full -time graduate students in key technical fields in American universities were born abroad. According to economist Zeke Hernandez, “you don’t need to have compassion so that foreigners know that getting rid of immigrants is bad for us.”