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Title: Why Skilled Immigrants Are Leaving the U.S.
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Yahoo
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Published: Mar 3, 2009
Author: Vivek Wadhwa
Post Date: 2009-03-03 13:58:34 by Prefrontal Vortex
Keywords: None
Views: 185
Comments: 12
As the debate over H-1B workers and skilled immigrants intensifies, we are losing sight of one important fact: The U.S. is no longer the only land of opportunity. If we don't want the immigrants who have fueled our innovation and economic growth, they now have options elsewhere. Immigrants are returning home in greater numbers. And new research shows they are returning to enjoy a better quality of life, better career prospects, and the comfort of being close to family and friends. Earlier research by my team suggested that a crisis was brewing because of a burgeoning immigration backlog. At the end of 2006, more than 1 million skilled professionals (engineers, scientists, doctors, researchers) and their families were in line for a yearly allotment of only 120,000 permanent resident visas. The wait time for some people ran longer than a decade. In the meantime, these workers were trapped in "immigration limbo." If they changed jobs or even took a promotion, they risked being pushed to the back of the permanent residency queue. We predicted that skilled foreign workers would increasingly get fed up and return to countries like India and China where the economies were booming. Why should we care? Because immigrants are critical to the country's long-term economic health. Despite the fact that they constitute only 12% of the U.S. population, immigrants have started 52% of Silicon Valley's technology companies and contributed to more than 25% of our global patents. They make up 24% of the U.S. science and engineering workforce holding bachelor's degrees and 47% of science and engineering workers who have PhDs. Immigrants have co-founded firms such as Google (NasdaqGS:GOOG - News), Intel (NasdaqGS:INTC - News), eBay (NasdaqGS:EBAY - News), and Yahoo! (NasdaqGS:YHOO - News). Who Are They? Young and Well-Educated We tried to find hard data on how many immigrants had returned to India and China. No government authority seems to track these numbers. But human resources directors in India and China told us that what was a trickle of returnees a decade ago had become a flood. Job applications from the U.S. had increased tenfold over the last few years, they said. To get an understanding of how the returnees had fared and why they left the U.S., my team at Duke, along with AnnaLee Saxenian of the University of California at Berkeley and Richard Freeman of Harvard University, conducted a survey. Through professional networking site LinkedIn, we tracked down 1,203 Indian and Chinese immigrants who had worked or received education in the U.S. and had returned to their home countries. This research was funded by the Kauffman Foundation. Our new paper, "America's Loss Is the World's Gain," finds that the vast majority of these returnees were relatively young. The average age was 30 for Indian returnees, and 33 for Chinese. They were highly educated, with degrees in management, technology, or science. Fifty-one percent of the Chinese held master's degrees and 41% had PhDs. Sixty-six percent of the Indians held a master's and 12.1% had PhDs. They were at very top of the educational distribution for these highly educated immigrant groups -- precisely the kind of people who make the greatest contribution to the U.S. economy and to business and job growth. Nearly a third of the Chinese returnees and a fifth of the Indians came to the U.S. on student visas. A fifth of the Chinese and nearly half of the Indians entered on temporary work visas (such as the H-1B). The strongest factor that brought them to the U.S. was professional and educational development opportunities. What They Miss: Family and Friends They found life in the U.S. had many drawbacks. Returnees cited language barriers, missing their family and friends at home, difficulty with cultural assimilation, and care of parents and children as key issues. About a third of the Indians and a fifth of the Chinese said that visas were a strong factor in their decision to return home, but others left for opportunity and to be close to family and friends. And it wasn't just new immigrants who were returning. In fact, 30% of respondents held permanent resident status or were U.S. citizens. Eighty-seven percent of Chinese and 79% of Indians said a strong factor in their original decision to return home was the growing demand for their skills in their home countries. Their instincts generally proved right. Significant numbers moved up the organization chart. Among Indians the percentage of respondents holding senior management positions increased from 10% in the U.S. to 44% in India, and among Chinese it increased from 9% in the U.S. to 36% in China. Eighty-seven percent of Chinese and 62% of Indians said they had better opportunities for longer-term professional growth in their home countries than in the U.S. Additionally, nearly half were considering launching businesses and said entrepreneurial opportunities were better in their home countries than in the U.S. Friends and family played an equally strong role for 88% of Indians and 77% of Chinese. Care for aging parents was considered by 89% of Indians and 79% of Chinese to be much better in their home countries. Nearly 80% of Indians and 67% of Chinese said family values were better in their home countries. More Options Back Home Immigrants who have arrived at America's shores have always felt lonely and homesick. They had to make big personal sacrifices to provide their children with better opportunities than they had. But they never have had the option to return home. Now they do, and they are leaving. It isn't all rosy back home. Indians complained of traffic and congestion, lack of infrastructure, excessive bureaucracy, and pollution. Chinese complained of pollution, reverse culture shock, inferior education for children, frustration with government bureaucracy, and the quality of health care. Returnees said they were generally making less money in absolute terms, but they also said they enjoyed a higher quality of life. We may not need all these workers in the U.S. during the deepening recession. But we will need them to help us recover from it. Right now, they are taking their skills and ideas back to their home countries and are unlikely to return, barring an extraordinary recruitment effort and major changes to immigration policy. That hardly seems likely given the current political climate. The policy focus now seems to be on doing whatever it takes to retain existing American jobs -- even if it comes at the cost of building a workforce for the future of America.
Poster Comment: Better idea: Charge no tuition at public universities for science, math, and engineering degrees. The net present value of an advanced science degree to someone born in America turned negative at the turn of the century. Raise the price of degrees in basket weaving, sociology, and ethnic studies.
Why Skilled Immigrants Are Leaving the U.S.
Vivek Wadhwa
Tuesday March 3, 2009, 8:08 am EST
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#1. To: Prefrontal Vortex (#0)
Good start. I'd go a step further and deemphasize the need for school (all school) attendance, and reestablish an apprenticeship program in the trades for American kids who show an eagerness to learn. H1B visas and immigration (except in limited instances) wouldn't exist if I had my way.
I think manufacturing jobs could be coming back in amerrrrrriKa. Bombs, tanks, planes and stuff don't just make theirselves ! I doubt china will be making it for us ! Or will they ???
One of my nephews quit college and became a San Antonio Police Officer and quickly made the move the a small town in East Texas as PD there. He'll probably end up being Chief someday. But as I've implied before, it appears the LegalIndustrialComplex, and with it TheStateInc's control, is the only growth industry left in AmeruKa. Just one big Socialist detainment camp. The immigrants see it. I repeat. Time for those with the money to consider expatriation. There will be no Revolution in the USSSA. Law Enforcement Against Prohibition You think the people of this country exist to provide you with position. I think your position exists to provide those people with freedom.~~William Wallace ALAS, BABYLON
I'm staying for various reasons, but if I were single, without family ties, I'd consider bailing.
That is stupid, silly, and impossible. First, there is no degree in basket weaving. Second, and more important, if tuition for engineering, science, and math was free, students would major in math and science for the first two years, taking the courses required in most majors and common electives. Therefore, they would have most of their degree paid for before taking upper level science and math courses. Depending on what requirements would be put into place, they might not need to change majors until their senior year.
The Chinese and Indians should not let the door hit them in their asses on the way back to their Third World hellholes. There are plenty of unemployed Americans to take their jobs here.
Lots of them. They just have fancied up names.
hopefully an upside of this depression is that illegals will go back from whence they came since there won't be jobs for them here.
So a few Jews would get a free education. I should sweat that?
Erectus Walks Amongst Us BS. Just BS. We need "skilled" immigrants like the Indians needed the white man. If they are going back home, it is only becasue they are home sick. I do hope they stay there.
God is always good!
You got my vote. :-) Maybe I can be your campaign manager.
God is always good!
No, we never needed them to start with. Unpatriotic a-holes like him really piss me off. These are the same people who call people that are against the war unpatriotic. They have no shame.
God is always good!
Raise the price of degrees in basket weaving, sociology, and ethnic studies.
#2. To: Jethro Tull (#1)
"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”—Samuel Adams 
#3. To: Jethro Tull (#1)
(Edited)
I'd go a step further and deemphasize the need for school (all school) attendance, and reestablish an apprenticeship program
It's been called off due to lack of interest. Eventually it may happen, but it appears we've left it to our children for that, as our parents and grandparents passed down their dirty laundry to us.
"Corporation: An entity created for the legal protection of its human parasites, whose sole purpose is profit and self-perpetuation." ~~ IndieTx
#4. To: IndieTX (#3)
Time for those with the money to consider expatriation.
#5. To: Prefrontal Vortex (#0)
Better idea: Charge no tuition at public universities for science, math, and engineering degrees. The net present value of an advanced science degree to someone born in America turned negative at the turn of the century. Raise the price of degrees in basket weaving, sociology, and ethnic studies.
#6. To: Prefrontal Vortex (#0)
No place is better than Turtle Island.
#7. To: DWornock (#5)
. First, there is no degree in basket weaving.
#8. To: Prefrontal Vortex (#0)
We may not need all these workers in the U.S. during the deepening recession.
#9. To: DWornock (#5)
Depending on what requirements would be put into place, they might not need to change majors until their senior year.
I will not go to Auschwitz. I have ordered the book. Da-do-run-run-run Da-do-run-run.
#10. To: Prefrontal Vortex (#0)
Why should we care? Because immigrants are critical to the country's long-term economic health.
#11. To: Jethro Tull (#1)
H1B visas and immigration (except in limited instances) wouldn't exist if I had my way.
#12. To: Prefrontal Vortex (#0)
We may not need all these workers in the U.S. during the deepening recession. But we will need them to help us recover from it.
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