Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Does US Owe the World an Education At Its Expense?

Posted by Soulskill on from the only-the-parts-that-have-oil dept.

An anonymous reader writes "'Right now, there are brilliant students from all over the world sitting in classrooms at our top universities,' President Obama explained to the nation Tuesday in his pitch for immigration reform. 'They are earning degrees in the fields of the future, like engineering and computer science...We are giving them the skills to figure that out, but then we are going to turn around and tell them to start the business and create those jobs in China, or India, or Mexico, or someplace else. That is not how you grow new industries in America. That is how you give new industries to our competitors. That is why we need comprehensive immigration reform." If the President truly fears that international students will use skills learned at U.S. colleges and universities to the detriment of the United States if they return home (isn't a rising tide supposed to lift all boats?) — an argument NYC Mayor Bloomberg advanced in 2011 ('we are investing millions of dollars [actually billions] to educate these students at our leading universities, and then giving the economic dividends back to our competitors – for free') — then wouldn't another option be not providing them with the skills in the first place?"

5 of 689 comments (clear)

  1. We have the same... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    in France.
    They come, study, get a diploma...
    And go away :)

    For all that time, free university, free medical expenses...

    F*ck socialism, it killed my country.

    1. Re:We have the same... by sycodon · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Meanwhile, they learn the local language and culture.

      Wasn't my experience in CA in the 80's

      Self segregating, separate clubs, etc. Some were even hostile...just try getting a date with one of "their" women.

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    2. Re:We have the same... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Local Junior College in Sacramento had this problem. The Fundie Ukrainians took over the student council and started persecuting people, funding ukrainian-only events, etc. They only got ousted after a rather public expose on this in one of the local newspapers which led to enough of the student body taking notice to vote them out of office (Also helped that volunteers started handling voting outside the usual midday period, which a lot of us missed due to having classes back to back during the voting period.)

      Point being there's a lot of cultural clashes going on across the US, but as much as it could be considered a 'foreigner' problem, it's also a cultural shift towards apathy within the US population itself. It doesn't matter what ethnicity, cultural background, etc, the majority of people have become so lazy and apathetic that until someone makes a big deal out of political shifts that are happening, and it affects them either financially or personally, they won't take action to make any necessary changes to curb other people's anti-social activities, even if it's done using resources that are earmarked for public, rather than 'minority of public' purposes.

  2. Re:Couldn't we just charge them tuition? by MrEricSir · · Score: 5, Interesting

    In fact we charge them outrageous tuitions in many cases. I went to a state university, and our department actively recruited students from India and China because they brought in the most cash.

    For the same reason, there was no outreach to the community college just down the street.

    --
    There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
  3. yep by mozumder · · Score: 5, Interesting

    International students are the ones that are paying full price for our universities, and they're the ones that keep our universities funded.

    Universities court international students like it was nobody else's business.

    A good part of the US GDP can be traced to actually selling higher-level education to international students. Consider that each international student brings in $50k+ to the US GDP, and multiply that by the number of students per year. It's easily a bigger industry than Hollywood.

    I'm surprised that Government doesn't allow more sales of education to international students. Our economy could use that money.

    Foreign money really does grow an economy. Consider also that in the 90's, the immigration door was wide open. Millions of people came to America. Now consider that each one needs to buy a house, at $100k+ each... you could pretty much explain the incredible GDP growth back in the 90's by our open border policy back then, and you saw how it hit our economy when we closed the borders after 9/11.