The U.S. Continues To ACCELERATE China’s Growth As A Technological Super Power
Recent media reports indicate the U.S. is quickly losing its
place as the top destination for global talent. Economically vital
areas such as California’s Silicon Valley, the heart of
America’s IT industry, report a growing “brain drain”
of skilled talent outside of the United States.1
Organizations like the American Management Association have
reported that on average, approximately 200,000 foreign-born
Americans return to their nations of origin every year, this brain
drain “stimulated in part by lucrative government incentives,
has spawned flourishing new scientific havens from South Asia to
Scandinavia.”2
One country that has actively encouraged both global and the
return of native-born expatriate talent is China. Since 2010, the
Chinese government has fostered a program called the Thousand
Talents Plan that has succeeded in attracting top researchers,
especially in the STEM fields, to relocate to China. While China
has recently ordered its officials to quiet any discussion of this
program due to increasing scrutiny by the U.S. government, the
program has succeeded in attracting over 6,000 scientists with
offers of generous research funding support and job offers at
Chinese universities.3 “Perhaps most
important,” one article in the Boston Globe recently
stated, “China is…working to become a more attractive place
for non-Chinese scientists to immigrate. These efforts range from
minor (making the Thousand Talents application available in
English) to the major (overhauling the immigration and visa
system).”4
If the U.S. is to retain its predominant global position against
such emergent actors like China, it must take the necessary steps
to remain the top destination for global talent. Recent policy
changes within the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services have,
for example, have made it increasingly difficult for foreign-born
students to remain in the U.S. after graduation, forcing many young
people, who could otherwise make significant contributions to the
U.S. economy, to take their skills and training with them back to
the countries of origin.5 Such short-sighted measures
will only hinder U.S. competitiveness in the long run. Instead of
imposing unreasonably stringent requirements, and lower approval
rates, for H-1s, L-1s, and other employment-based visas, the U.S.
government needs a more enlightened approach that both facilitates
U.S. employers’ acquisition of needed talent with a sensible
vetting system to ensure compliance. We encourage productive
collaboration between immigration attorneys, lawmakers, and other
policy experts to develop laws and policies that fix problems in
the current statutes and regulations, while providing employers and
their global talent with a sensible, fair, and timely path to
acquiring their visas. While China may be keeping mum on its
aggressive talent acquisition program for the moment, the U.S.
cannot afford to provoke a brain drain that will only further
China’s goals.
Footnotes
1. Ellen Sheng. “Silicon Valley is fighting a
brain-drain war with Trump that it may lose.” CNBC.com, April
9, 2018: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/09/trumps-war-on-immigration-causing-silicon-valley-brain-drain.html
2. “Wake Up, America: The Alarming Realities of
Today’s Reverse Brain Drain.” American Management
Association: https://www.amanet.org/training/articles/wake-up-america-the-alarming-realities-of-todays-reverse-brain-drain.aspx
3. “Yuan Yang and Nian Liu. “China Hushes Up
Scheme to Recruit Overseas Scientists.” https://www.ft.com/content/a06f414c-0e6e-11e9-a3aa-118c761d2745
4. Arthur W. Lambert. “Can the US stop the
scientific brain drain to China?” Boston Globe,
August 1, 2018: https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2018/08/01/can-stop-scientific-brain-drain-china/TFhIJlQ33sxdTzdgWcGZwI/story.html
5. USCIS Policy Memorandum, Accrual of Unlawful
Presence and F, J, and M Nonimmigrants, August 9, 2018. https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Laws/Memoranda/2018/2018-08-09-PM-602-1060.1-Accrual-of-Unlawful-Presence-and-F-J-and-M-Nonimmigrants.pdf
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