Current Immigration Policies are Hurting American Science and Engineering
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For the past decade or so, I have worked as a career counselor at national scientific meetings where I present seminars about resume writing, interviewing techniques and other career related issues. About two years ago, I started to hear about the fierce competition for H-1 and J-1 visas that foreign students must obtain to remain in the US to continue their studies and research. Many of the foreign students that I talked with sounded more like immigration lawyers than graduate students or postdocs—I was amazed at how well informed they were about visa availability and the changes and loopholes in US immigration law that can be exploited to obtain visas.
Since that time, it has become increasingly apparent that the visa problems experienced by most foreign students are beginning to wreak havoc on US science and engineering. Curiously, nobody at the US State Department seems to know why these visa problems exist. According to an article in today’s NY Times, a State Department official claims that visa delays can be attributed to “unfortunate staffing shortages.” Many of the students (and some immigration lawyers) that I talked with believe that it is annual visa limits and quotas not staffing issues that make it so difficult to obtain them.
It is no secret that American middle and high school students are no longer interested in pursuing careers in science and engineering. Because of this, American universities have come to rely on foreign students to fill open slots in graduate and postdoctoral sciences and engineering programs. With this in mind, it should come as no surprise that, over the past decade or more, foreign talent has been largely responsible for much of the technical and scientific innovation in the US. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, American universities can no longer assume that the US is the first choice or destination for many foreign undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students—teaching and research at many foreign universities have vastly improved in recent years and can now compete with the best research institutions in the US. In the past, it was largely assumed that when given a choice foreign student would choice a US university over all others. Together these findings beg the question: “If foreign students and postdocs are largely responsible for maintaining America’s competitive edge in science and technology, why would the US government make it so difficult to recruit the world’s best and brightest?”
There is no doubt that the US government, in a post-September 11th world ought to carefully scrutinize foreign students before they are issued visas to study or work in the US. But, why has it become increasingly difficult for foreign students to renew their visas to continue to study or work in the US? Interestingly, visa availability and renewal problems are not only restricted to foreign nationals from likely places like China, India, the Middle East or Russia. Many students and postdocs from Australia, Europe and elsewhere are also experiencing major delays and difficulty obtaining student or work visas.
While the visa issues facing foreign students may not seem like a big one to most Americans (most of who are not involved in science and engineering), its effects on American science and engineering are beginning to become apparent. For example, conference organizers are reluctant to hold international meetings in the US because they fear that many students and scientists will not be able to attend because of limited visa availability. Further, many talented foreign nationals, who want to remain and work in the US, are frequently forced to return to their home countries (to find employment) because they are unable to renew or extend their US visas. There is no question that America has grown increasingly dependent upon foreign students to conduct research in science and engineering. I contend, that without these students, America’s competitiveness in science and engineering will continue to wane as it has over the past 20 years. I believe that America has two choices to prevent this from happening. First, we can somehow convince larger numbers of American high school students to pursue careers in science and engineering. Second, the US government can improve and simply the visa process so that talented foreign students can continue to study and do research in the US. Nevertheless, something must be done soon—the future competitiveness of American science and engineering depends on it!
Until next time...
Good Luck and Good Visa Hunting!!!!!!
Construction of such projects requires knowledge of engineering and management principles and business procedures, economics, and human behavior.
This article does not address several issues that are very relevant. First, the author is not a scientist, so they are oblivious to the real reason for the problems mentioned. Americans do not go into science because a PhD and even a master's degree degree in science not only represents a net loss in lifetime earnings compared to a bachelor's degree in almost any non-humanity subject. The reason for the poor pay is because universities keep importing more foreign talent to hold wages down. As a scientist who worked with foreign grad students and postdocs, I can say that most of these foreigners are not the "best and brightest"; they are simply hired for grunt work in the laboratory. Giving out more visas only makes the problem worse. Second, career prospects for scientists in America are dismal. There are few industrial jobs in science, and most industrial work like chemical manufacture has already been outsourced to other countries. This is due in part to more relaxed environmental laws in other countries, so in one sense, America is a terrible place to start a chemical manufacturing firm, but not because of visa problems. Third, the US does not actually reward most of its scientists with a career. Most people who major in science leave science for better pay, but also because they have only very short careers. Scientists and engineers are often fired immediately after they help develop a product or after the science makes a shift for the next hot topic. Few companies see experience in "non-hot" fields as worth the amount of pay that experienced workers in other fields like business would get without question; thus, the scientist and engineer turnover rate is extremely high compared to people with similar education in other fields. Fourth, while international meetings do require visas to enter the US, I seriously doubt this is a major problem. International conferences are a big deal, and asking someone to fly from Europe or Asia to the US is not cheap. If there are a few problems getting visas, it probably takes a back seat to the cost of the conference and the amount of money that visa holders have to pay for travel. In fact, the only peoople who would have major problems getting a travel visa nowadays would be people of Middle Eastern decent. There are far more Indians, Asians, and Europeans in science than Middle Easterners, so if a few cannot get a visa readily, I doubt it would kill a conference.
I have very curiously read the blog and the extensive comments. i would just like to add, what if the individual is really talented then when in order to work, he or she need to waste his or her energy on searching for visa categories, rather than contributing to science, then i guess US is really at a loss.
I am an Indian PhD student studying in Australia. I had to go for a conference in first week of May and I missed it because I did not get a visa on time. I applied one month in advance.Interestingly, I found out that Indian,Russian and Chinese scientists, specially the ones that are doing a PhD in chemistry are subjected to an FBI scan on their passport. I read an article about this in the Washington post but I am not certain if I come in the same category. This scrutiny is for the "security" of American citizens post 9/11. The US embassy is one of the few ones where you have to be present for an interview. I would have happily answered as many questions they wanted to ask about "my background" or my "intentions" as I think a face-to-face interview gives you a fair idea of whether a person is a security threat or not. And if they have made up their mind about delaying all Indian visas by default why do they make us go through the hassle of traveling all the way to Sydney and be present in person.For a student, the cost of visa fees and airfares is not a trivial amount.
However, my co-worker who has a Greek passport, inspite of working in the same field (biofuels) got his visa stamped in 2 days.
Another difference between the Greek and Indian visa was that he got it for 10 years and mine came back today and is valid only for a year. So now I have to find a conference before the end of May next year if I have to really make use of this visa.
I am not in the least angry. Or I do not even think this is going to make a BIG difference to my career. I do not even consider myself "talented". But just the treatment given to two people working in the same lab, doing similar work and wanting to come back to Australia right after the conference is so different. It is definitely worth giving a thought to.
I felt a bit humiliated in the beginning when my team left without me as I am the only Indian. But I got over it as a part of life.
And to be honest, I think people should just make lots of "Plan Bs" when it comes to including America in their career graph!
The world is not short of destinations. I guess it is time to move on.
@Bahali
I agree when you say that not all international students are bright but that does not negate the fact that America does get some serious talent from overseas. In a statistical distribution maybe you are right but the few that really are talented and whose work is applied in the American Industry come from the same "herd" as the ones that do the "grunt work".
What could be the good side of this is that people would want to go back to their own countries and contribute to their own economies. Most overseas students are from China and India (at least in research). If this big chunk of talented and not so talented people actually work in their countries, they would definitely help the rapidly growing economies even more.
And in the end, to conclude my rather long comment I would also like to say that it is a number game. The East is getting increasingly young everyday (Thanks to lack of family planning). It is also somewhat necessary for the US and other countries to check immigration. Or one day the whole world would turn brown. :)
Cheers
Saee