Education, Immigration & American Competitiveness
The United States, unquestionably, has the best higher education system in the world. In 2010, the US attracted 690,923 students to American universities from foreign countries. American immigration laws require that most of them must leave the United States after they complete their education. The US has an annual limit of 140,000 green cards per year with a quota maximum of 7% from any one country, i.e., 9,800.
The countries with the highest percentage of students who must leave the US are China, with 127,628 students studying at our universities, and India, with 104,897 students in the US. India has a backlog of 210,000 applicants in one green card category (EB-3). It would
take 70 years to clear if no new ones were added. Chinese immigrants would take 20 years to clear.
There is a critical shortage in this country of people with advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). In most fields of engineering,
more than half the people who earned PhDs are foreign nationals. Most of them are required to leave the United States after graduation. This immigration policy is accelerating the rise of China and India and reducing America’s competitiveness.
American companies, like Microsoft, have created research centers in Vancouver, British Columbia, because Canada accommodates immigration of people with technical degrees. More than 40% of Vancouver’s residents are now Asians. American companies have also created research centers in India and China.
The Financial Times (10/13/11) stated. “If you had to devise a perverse economic policy, it would be difficult to do much worse than this. First, invest heavily in research – the NIH alone ploughs $32 billion annually into medical science – and build world-class universities with state-of-the-art facilities. Second, lure the brightest young scientists
to the USA to study at the cutting edge. Last, send them home with that knowledge.”
To help retain skilled foreign nationals in the United States, Congress should establish an exemption from the employment-based green card quotas for individuals who earn a master’s degree or higher from an American university.
