Wall Street Journal: Cognizant CEO Participates in a Task-Force Discussion on Generating Economic Growth in the U.S.

Francisco D'Souza, CEO, Cognizant

“There needs to be a greater public-private partnership around the issue of competitiveness so that the public and private sectors working together can further the competitiveness of the U.S.,” says Francisco D’Souza. “For competitiveness, we believe you have to have a skilled workforce and an adequate supply. There's clearly a skills gap in the U.S., particularly in the so- called STEM disciplines—science, technology, engineering and mathematics.”

He adds, “We are at a point where we have the single largest number of folks who were born outside of the U.S. living in the U.S. on an absolute basis of any time in our history. Approximately 38 million people living here were born outside the U.S. There’s a real human issue around family reunification, about folks who live here being able to bring their families here. And so the suggestion is comprehensive immigration reform that includes temporary visas for skilled individuals and green cards for folks who come here.”

D’Souza notes that foreign students who come to the U.S. have trouble staying in the country. “We bring them here, we educate them in some of the best universities in the world and then we send them home. We ought to be able to keep them here. And then finally looking at the folks who are in the U.S. illegally—looking at the issues of a path to citizenship and dealing with the children of folks who are here illegally through issues like the Dream Act,” he says.

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