RE-THINK IMMIGRATION
A Monday-through-Friday, non-partisan blog covering the most
contentious policy issue of our time: immigration.

martes, enero 01, 2008
Op/Ed: 'A talent contest we're losing'

Escrito PorDaniela a las 09:54 PM |  Comentar |  Imprimir |  Enviar a Correo

The chairman of Intel, Craig Barrett, wrote an op/ed in the Washington Post, claiming that to be competitive in the global tech economy, the U.S. needs to increase the number of H1-B visas it grants each year and revamp the system in general, especially in the face of a new Blue Card system proposed in the E.U.

Some key excerpts:
The U.S. system forces thousands of valuable foreign-born professionals -- including badly needed researchers, scientists, teachers and engineers -- into legal and professional limbo for years. Not surprisingly, many are considering opportunities in competitor nations -- even those who have lived in the United States for years and have graduated from American universities.

To be competitive in the global economy, U.S. companies depend on specialized talent coming out of U.S. graduate schools. These scientists and engineers are often foreign-born, as more than half of U.S. engineering master's students and PhD recipients are international students. Yet America shuts the door on many of these highly educated graduates, forcing them to look abroad for opportunities -- and our competitors are capitalizing on our failed policies.

E.U. leaders recognize that the top minds coming out of universities in the United States and other countries can help to reinvigorate European industry and enable it to create the next wave of businesses that drive innovation and economic growth.

While its Blue Card proposal still requires approval by member countries, Europe has sent a message. It intends to aggressively pursue the professional talent necessary to compete on the global stage. The United States, on the other hand, seems intent on driving away the very same talent the European Union is rolling out the red carpet to welcome.


 
   
Comentarios
miss_irene  dijo...

These scientists and engineers are often foreign-born, as more than half of U.S. engineering master's students and PhD recipients are international students.

Both the US and the EU need to concentrate more on growing more of their talent at home. We are falling behind because more and more of our educational system is being co-opted by Gramscian nonsense such as "diversity traing" and other ideological trash. We need engineers, scientists and physicists, not "diversity trainers" or "ethnic studies professors" or "immigration lawyers." We don't need to import Chinese or Indian engineers of questionable loyalty in the millions -- we need to divert all educational resources from the useless humanities and law school mandarins and into the hard sciences. I'm not a fan of the welfare state by any means, but I support full state-paid tuition, room and board for any American kid who wants to go into the hard sciences.
02 enero, 2008 08:01:55 AM

ultima  dijo...
The usual fix for a shortage is to take measures to increase the supply. That does not mean the increase must come from the foreign born. What are we doing to stimulate the production of American PhDs.?
02 enero, 2008 08:01:36 AM

bluebellcalifornia  dijo...
While I agree with Ultima, that increasing our own supply of PhDs and engineers is necessary, we also must understand that we are not going to catch up to the numbers, say, India is producing any time soon. We can only improve our own domestic stock of tech experts by encouraging the immigration of the best from abroad.
02 enero, 2008 01:01:49 PM

miss_irene  dijo...
(Sorry for not closing my tags and making everybody's remarks come out in italics.) Ulty, getting more home-grown Phds. is not going to be that difficult -- as I said above, diverting our educational resources from non-productive fields of study into the hard sciences would be a start. Many imported engineers will have dual loyalties -- many Indian programmers do their five or 10 years in Silicon Valley, then go back to India and start up tech companies that undercut and compete with ours. I saw this happen many times during my time in the Valley. Chinese imports have been known to transfer our technology to the homeland. A country that has to outsource its R&D to foreigners is a country that's on the skids. But we all know that our country IS on the skids, don't we?
02 enero, 2008 07:01:08 PM



 
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