President Donald Trump's anti-immigration rhetoric has hurt American companies' ability to recruit foreign workers, according to the world's youngest billionaire John Collison.
Collison, 27, co-founded the payment processing company Stripe with his brother, Patrick. The Irish-born billionaire noted in an interview with BBC News that his Silicon Valley-based company has encountered difficulty in trying to hire foreign workers due to Trump's words on immigrants.
"People are less willing to move to the U.S.," he said. "They don't even want to enter the visa process because of the perceived political climate here and how welcoming it is to immigrants and I think the perception (of the U.K.) will also make it harder to recruit in the U.K."
Stripe employs more than 700 people in California, over 100 in Dublin and 25 in London, and has backing from tech luminaries Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, among others.
He went on to say that the British government, in the wake of Brexit, must make sure to send a message to the world that foreign talent is welcome in the country.
"What's done is done, but what I think we can now affect is the perception of the U.K. as an attractive place to live, work and do business," Collison said. "It's something we are screwing up in the U.S. and I think there is a very clear opportunity to send a message that the U.K. is a good place to emigrate to."
He added: "There is a juxtaposition between an outward, global, technology and export-based economy on the one hand and the anti-immigrant signals from the U.S. and Brexit."
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