No Talent Need Apply
By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in Policy | Stopping The Great American Brain Drain — Comments (7) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
George Will has a habit of getting to the nub of an issue. He displays that habit anew when discussing American policy that essentially sanctions and encourages a brain drain from the United States:
Modernity means the multiplication of dependencies on things utterly mysterious to those who are dependent -- things such as semiconductors, which control the functioning of almost everything from cellphones to computers to cars. "The semiconductor," says a wit who manufactures them, "is the OPEC of functionality, except it has no cartel power." Semiconductors are, like oil, indispensable to the functioning of many things that are indispensable. Regarding oil imports, Americans agonize about a dependence they cannot immediately reduce. Yet their nation's policy is the compulsory expulsion or exclusion of talents crucial to the creativity of the semiconductor industry that powers the thriving portion of our bifurcated economy. While much of the economy sputters, exports are surging, and the semiconductor industry is America's second-largest exporter, close behind the auto industry in total exports and the civilian aircraft industry in net exports.
The semiconductor industry's problem is entangled with a subject about which the loquacious presidential candidates are reluctant to talk -- immigration, specifically that of highly educated people. Concerning whom, U.S. policy should be: A nation cannot have too many such people, so send us your PhDs yearning to be free.
Instead, U.S. policy is: As soon as U.S. institutions of higher education have awarded you a PhD, equipping you to add vast value to the economy, get out. Go home. Or to Europe, which is responding to America's folly with "blue cards" to expedite acceptance of the immigrants America is spurning.
Two-thirds of doctoral candidates in science and engineering in U.S. universities are foreign-born. But only 140,000 employment-based green cards are available annually, and 1 million educated professionals are waiting -- often five or more years -- for cards. Congress could quickly add a zero to the number available, thereby boosting the U.S. economy and complicating matters for America's competitors.
Don Boudreaux performs the valuable service of giving us some of the historical and theoretical arguments underpinning Will's column. And as Will makes clear, neither Barack Obama nor John McCain have distinguished themselves by talking about this issue and by seeking to do something about this parlous state of policy. McCain will want to remedy that situation quickly and show himself to be more technologically forward-thinking than Obama. He could do worse than to take Will's column and Professor Boudreaux's post and use it as a constant talking point on the campaign trail.
There are some issues that are important enough to be inserted into a stump speech and indeed, to become stump speech mainstays. This is such an issue.
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No Talent Need Apply 7 Comments (0 topical, 7 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
We should have a program for American elites to trade places with Cuban professionals, many of whom are driving cabs and refilling cigarette lighters so they can make some real money to supplement their quotas.
It's good to shine a light on the problems with letting PhD's stay in this country after graduation. Something should be done about it, but it's not going to dramatically change the situation that exists now. The vast majority of foreigners who come here for graduate degrees in the sciences or engineering fields do so with the intention of returning home to Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, India, China, etc. After being exposed to American culture, or meeting a spouse, some do decide to stay and we should make it easier.
You want to dramatically change the situation you have to impose some rules to those federal dollars Universities get for science research. Require that 50% of graduates must be American citizens in each field. This will help solve some of the entirely Asian fields like Math, etc at some universities. Or perhaps just make federal research grants require that 50% or even 100% of people working be citizens since it's our money being spent in the research....
....the visa issue is only half the problem. The other half is that the rest of the world has relatively caught up to the US. For many professionals from China or Taiwan it pays nearly as much to return home, and you can save more money (we certainly do here in Taiwan as opposed to there in the US). Further, throughout East Asia the US is now perceived as a power in decline, which affects its desirability as a destination. There is a nagging fear too that living in the US is risking terrible crime -- which is true in one way, one is far more likely to be the victim of mugging in the US, and a con in Taiwan, crime being cultural just like everything else. All in all, to get those thousands to stay means changing things about the US and its image.
Vorkosigan
I know of no shortage of engineering talent. I still see lots of underemployed engineers around. It's cheaper to get people with an H1-B visa, use them as indentured servants, and then discard them when the next generation is available.
R&D engineers are helpful mostly to companies that take the long view. Ours are most focused on the next quarter, and few CEOs care about what'll happen to the company after they leave. They just aren't going to make long-term investments. Japan largely won the semiconductor wars a long time ago, because it did make that investment.
Ours are most focused on the next quarter, and few CEOs care about what'll happen to the company after they leave. They just aren't going to make long-term investments.
Truer words have not been spoken. You pegged it. The problem is a lack of strategic thinking.
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Not just for the world-class professionals but for all talented and motivated people, particularly those from eastern Europe who have a disproportionately difficult time simply coming over here as tourists while also unmarried. How do we know a good look around won't convince them to come back for school and work? The human capital in these post-communist nations is tremendous and to discourage them for no better reason than administrative arbitration is just stupid, I feel.
The only thing preventing change is Americans' sense of entitlement. Highly educated professionals like being special, elite, and in demand.
Considering how much it costs us as taxpayers to educate each person getting a PhD, you'd think we'd want something in return.