Foreign Talents in the US

I came to this country in 1984 as a graduate student in engineering. I expected to meet and make-friends with many Americans. When I walked into the classroom the first time, I found, except for one, all my fellow classmates are either Chinese, Indian, or Iranian.

National Science Foundation reported that, in 2007, about 30% of all US graduate students, in science and engineering, are foreigners, and 58% for post-doctoral studies. This has been the same for decades.

Foreign students pay much higher tuition than the state residents, sometime 10 times more. Since the laws prohibit them from working, they all brought monies from home countries. They worked in the labs and classrooms to relieve professors’ burdens and helped out with the researches. US’s higher education institutes have grown to depend on them as financial and human resources.

Now many decades later, we can observe some interesting long-term effects:

  • Foreign-born scientists and engineers have gradually replaced those American professors and researchers as they retire.
  • Those who stayed in the US have contributed greatly to the advances of US technology leadership. Nearly a third of the silicon valley start-ups were founded by foreign-born and US-educated.
  • They have been the key to their home countries’ modernization and increased competitiveness, frequently against the USA. Many top executives, professors, and researchers, in China and India were US-educated.

Paul Kedrosky, senior fellow at the Kauffman Foundation, wondered if the US can benefit more from these foreign-born talents. He proposed to attaching green cards to all postgraduate diplomas in this country. He said, in Marketplace, that

It certainly beats the alternative where we give them this wonderful education then send them home and say good luck starting a new companies that we’ll then worry about later on. Why don’t we try to take advantage and build upon that success rather than making it more difficult for ourselves?

Having lived here for pretty much my entire adult life, I frequently wonder why Americans are so willing to suffer, economically, for their choice ideologies. When the examiner from INS (Immigration and Naturalization Services) questioned my reasons to stay in the country, I needed to be careful. Had I said, “I came. This seems like a good place. Therefore I would like to stay.” My request would have been denied. The acceptable reason must be unforeseeable when I first entered the country.

Whether this country would benefit from letting me, or other scientists and engineers, stay was never questioned.

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