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Smart Immigrants Going Home

Posted by kdawson on from the no-longer-the-only-land-of-opportunity dept.

olddotter writes "A 24-page paper on a reverse brain drain from the US back to home countries (PDF) is getting news coverage. Quoting: 'Our new paper, "America's Loss Is the World's Gain," finds that the vast majority of these returnees were relatively young. The average age was 30 for Indian returnees, and 33 for Chinese. They were highly educated, with degrees in management, technology, or science. Fifty-one percent of the Chinese held master's degrees and 41% had PhDs. Sixty-six percent of the Indians held a master's and 12.1% had PhDs. They were at very top of the educational distribution for these highly educated immigrant groups — precisely the kind of people who make the greatest contribution to the US economy and to business and job growth." Adding to the brain drain is a problem with slow US visa processing, since last November or so, that has been driving desirable students and scientists out of the country.

1 of 770 comments (clear)

  1. Re:H1B's leaving by lcsjk · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    We have a stupid system here in the USA. Our taxes pay for their education and research and then we make it so hard to get a job that many have have to go back home, taking their tax paid education and expertise with them. Keep in mind that these students are the top 10 percent of all from China and India. I have been working with PhD students for 10 years, mostly Chinese and Indian, and so far, I have not found even one student that wants to return home without working for a few years in the USA. If we pay for their education, they should be REQUIRED to work in the US for a few years, yet we make it so hard to get H1-B visas that many end up going home. Sure, they raise the standard of living back home, and have good will for the US, but we are the losers. Uneducated yard workers can get visas almost as easily as the smartest students we educate. Sure, there are thousands of students, but just a drop in the bucket of the total of Visas. Make it easy for them to get visas and they will not have to work for lower wages than US citizens and we all will benefit. It is a stupid system.