Unleash The Little Guys
Since 2000, there have been more foreign students than American-born students studying engineering, the physical sciences and mathematics at the graduate level at U.S. universities, and although the gap has narrowed somewhat since then, that is most likely because of post-September 11 immigration restrictions and not because of an improvement in the U.S. numbers.
Perhaps the best way to train and cultivate scientists—and to keep strong the link between science and innovation—is to expose our graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to commercialization and entrepreneurship practices.
IMMIGRATION: The dearth of U.S.-born scientists and engineers necessitates policies to welcome more immigrant scientists to America. A team of researchers at Duke University and the University of California, Berkeley, recently found that between 1995 and 2005 immigrants founded or cofounded 25 percent of all U.S. high-tech firms, and in 2006 accounted for 24 percent of international patent applications from the United States.
Today more than 1 million people are waiting in line for legal permanent-resident status. Yet skilled workers and their families have access to only about 120,000 visas each year.
What's worse, the number of visas available to immigrants from any one country is fewer than 10,000, so the wait time for those from countries with the largest populations, such as India and China, is close to six years. The United States faces a potential reverse brain drain as increasing numbers of skilled Indian and Chinese workers return home to booming economies.
U.S. officials have made a dent in reducing visa-processing backlogs, but even if the current backlog were eliminated completely, with more than a million people waiting for only 120,000 visas each year, it will keep reappearing faster than it can be erased. The only permanent solution is to increase the number of available visas.
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Member Comments
Posted By: sc young @ 01/11/2008 8:50:48 AM
Comment: A degree does not a good citizen make
In ???Unleash the Little Guys??? Carl Schramm gets it wrong on immigration. A university degree should not serve as an automatic pathway to citizenship. We need more than scientists and engineers in the building of a great nation. We need immigrants who share our values, demonstrate a respect for the rule of law (vital to a healthy democracy), and who do not seek to exploit our generosity.
Take Chinese immigrants as one example. Today, there are 1.5 million Chinese immigrants living in America and fully one-third (500,000 people) are here illegally. For those of us who have lived and worked on the mainland, however, such flouting of the law is expected. In China, the rule of law is not respected because the government and its institutions are corrupt. Unquestionably, this has had a detrimental effect on society-at-large.
In China, few parents or educators focus on the impact of individual morality on greater society. Hence, it is no surprise that piracy, a rampant disregard for intellectual property, fake or ineffectual ???degree??? holders, and out-right thievery has meant that multinationals must take extreme measures to protect their interests. Even the Chinese government must develop excessive procedures to collect taxes and to prevent the pillaging of state assets. I ask Mr. Schramm- are these the citizens he seeks? I could list a number of endemic social ills that would render China a poor source of supposed talent at the present time.
Further, this culture of corruption migrates, infects our own society and costs us dearly: Studies in the 1990s demonstrated that new Chinese immigrants- more than other group- tended to take advantage of welfare. Many willingly signed Immigration and Naturalization Service affidavits declaring that parents "will not become a public charge." Later, however, these immigrants took advantage of loopholes to gain welfare and subsidized housing. Census data for California stated that 75 percent of the recipients' children were professionals with incomes above the state median. By 1990, 55 percent of Chinese seniors (who immigrated to California from 1980 to 1987) were on welfare.
First and foremost, let us solve the weaknesses in our education systems that have led to a shortfall in a particular professional area. Further still, entrepreneurs are not the great saviors Mr. Schramm suggests. Research has shown that big and small businesses contribute equally to job growth- although not to our society (small businesses are the biggest tax cheats). Regardless, I am certain our young citizens, given the right tools and opportunities, are quite capable of exceeding our expectations in the fields of science and technology.
SC
Posted By: sc young @ 01/11/2008 8:47:42 AM
Comment: A degree does not a good citizen make
In ???Unleash the Little Guys??? Carl Schramm gets it wrong on immigration. A university degree should not serve as an automatic pathway to citizenship. We need more than scientists and engineers in the building of a great nation. We need immigrants who share our values, demonstrate a respect for the rule of law (vital to a healthy democracy), and who do not seek to exploit our generosity.
Take Chinese immigrants as one example. Today, there are 1.5 million Chinese immigrants living in America and fully one-third (500,000 people) are here illegally. For those of us who have lived and worked on the mainland, however, such flouting of the law is expected. In China, the rule of law is not respected because the government and its institutions are corrupt. Unquestionably, this has had a detrimental effect on society-at-large.
In China, few parents or educators focus on the impact of individual morality on greater society. Hence, it is no surprise that piracy, a rampant disregard for intellectual property, fake or ineffectual ???degree??? holders, and out-right thievery has meant that multinationals must take extreme measures to protect their interests. Even the Chinese government must develop excessive procedures to collect taxes and to prevent the pillaging of state assets. I ask Mr. Schramm- are these the citizens he seeks? I could list a number of endemic social ills that would render China a poor source of supposed talent at the present time.
Further, this culture of corruption migrates, infects our own society and costs us dearly: Studies in the 1990s demonstrated that new Chinese immigrants- more than other group- tended to take advantage of welfare. Many willingly signed Immigration and Naturalization Service affidavits declaring that parents "will not become a public charge." Later, however, these immigrants took advantage of loopholes to gain welfare and subsidized housing. Census data for California stated that 75 percent of the recipients' children were professionals with incomes above the state median. By 1990, 55 percent of Chinese seniors (who immigrated to California from 1980 to 1987) were on welfare.
First and foremost, let us solve the weaknesses in our education systems that have led to a shortfall in a particular professional area. Further still, entrepreneurs are not the great saviors Mr. Schramm suggests. Research has shown that big and small businesses contribute equally to job growth- although not to our society (small businesses are the biggest tax cheats). Regardless, I am certain our young citizens, given the right tools and opportunities, are quite capable of exceeding our expectations in the fields of science and technology.
SC
San Francisco
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