ReferenceError: React is not defined in jest tests

@babel/preset already has support for what you need. According to the react 17 documentation I only had to set the runtime to automatic in my babel.config.json.

{
  "presets": [
    ["@babel/preset-react", {
      "runtime": "automatic"
   }]
  ]
}

If you are using @babel/plugin-transform-react-jsx the config should be

{
  "plugins": [
    ["@babel/plugin-transform-react-jsx", {
      "runtime": "automatic"
    }]
  ]
}

The latter is usually not needed since @babel/preset-react includes @babel/plugin-transform-react-jsx.

Why you shouldn’t use import React from 'react';

The documentation states:

• There are some performance improvements and simplifications that React.createElement does not allow.

There is also a technical RFC that explains how the new transformation works.

If you want to upgrade. React also provides an automated script that removes unnecessarry imports from your code.