Why Skilled Immigrants Are Leaving the U.S

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Why Skilled Immigrants Are Leaving the U.S 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

thaha · Mar 3, 2009 9:46 AM · 22,066 views

18 Replies

Come home my dear brothers and sisters. I mean only skilled and American educated Nepali. Not DV won or ayslum seekers. We need you now more than ever to build our motherland. Jai Greater New Nepal

sajhakhohero · Mar 3, 2009 9:51 AM

yep. im just gonna get all this education n experience from this nice university here, and offcourse good credit (maxed) and gonna come home once i finish masters. hehe Btw IT major here! I dream of laying the framework for better infrastructure so that one day we may have Japan's connectivity in our country! is tht asking for too much? hehe.. anyways, im excited about going home!!! fk all u haters who wanna question my motive. us ma jindagi slave jasto thiyo, baru afnai desh ma slave hunu janchu. jai nepal.

K6 · Mar 3, 2009 10:14 AM

I believe above article portrays mostly the Chinese and Indian immigrants.  They are the ones who are returning back to the country of their origin in droves.  Why you ask?  Well, that is because their country got their ducks in order.  Those nations created a welcoming, attractive and lucrative environment for these highly skilled, highly educated, highly motivated workers to come home to.  Sadly, this is not the case for Nepali immigrants.  If anything, it is the opposite, even more so, for us.

Riten · Mar 3, 2009 10:28 AM

Well said Riten.

Jonny · Mar 3, 2009 10:38 AM

sajahakohero you uneducated scumbag fuccken turd..those DV winners or asylum seekers are nepalese too. you never know those people are better educated and can contribut more than those who study in the US and disappear.

georgian_satellite · Mar 3, 2009 10:50 AM

Yup, In next 4 to 5 yrs i am planning to go back after finishing my Ph.D. Maybe be a lecturer in university, be near to my family, and do the stuffs i always wanted to do "Trekking" to all those beautiful places in Nepal

Poon-Hill · Mar 3, 2009 11:03 AM

I can say from my experience that 90% of the DV winners and asylum seekers cannot mach with the educated people in Nepal. So I support sajhakohero for that one.

babbal123 · Mar 3, 2009 11:04 AM

Poon-Hill! Trekking! yes! that is the ONE reason I want to return.Here in US, I've been "trekking" and "hiking" in the Rockies, and it was a beautiful experience, but it kinda spoils the whole atmosphere when u encounter various signs of intelligent lifeform along your trek (Signposts, Huts, wtever) compared to the 100% natural experience in the Himalayas. SO THESE OTHER COUNTRIES (INDIA AND CHINA) CREATED A "LUCRATIVE" SCENE FOR THEIR FOREIGN CITITZENS TO RETURN. CONSIDER THAT THEY ALSO HAVE 1 BILLION PLUS POPULATIONS OK????????? WE? WE NEED ALL THE INDIVIDUAL SUPPORT WE CAN GET, AND EVEN IF WE DONT, WE DON"T HAVE A CHOICE OF GIVING UP, UNLESS ITS GIVING UP YOUR NATIONALITY. STOP BITCHING, START HITCHING. Ani @Riten ji: I don't want to sound offensive here, but you do have a point that these countries got their "ducks" in order. But if you are waiting for someone to order the 'ducks' in Nepal, I'm sad to say you are mistaken. No one is going to roll out the red carpet for returning folks, we have to jump into the storm and battle it out. Feel free to mock/disagree w/ me.

dekchidriver · Mar 3, 2009 11:23 AM

Driver-ji, Yes you are right.  I stand corrected.

Riten · Mar 3, 2009 11:45 AM

let me state what   georgian_satellite said to Hero Of Sajha. "Sajahakohero you uneducated scumbag fuccken turd..those DV winners or asylum seekers are nepalese too. you never know those people are better educated and can contribut more than those who study in the US and disappear" Is there any nepali educated in usa who can challenge georgian_satellite regarding the above motion. it's just make me !!!

sajhakhohero · Mar 3, 2009 12:20 PM

Riten, Yes, article portrays based on Indian and Chinese immigrants, but it addresses the factual story of all immigrants.  It could be difficult to that news reporter to get adequate information of immigrants form individual nation.  It implies as why skilled immigrants are leaving the U.S, but not implies as why only Indo-chinsese immigrents are leaving the U.S.  

bagbhalu · Mar 3, 2009 12:22 PM

thaha what is the source of that article? for me no. 1 reason to go back to nepal is Family . no. 1 reason to stay in USA is this country really values human life.

dipulata · Mar 3, 2009 1:53 PM

sorry  I got the source now from google search . http://www.businessweek.com/te...

dipulata · Mar 3, 2009 1:56 PM

another one from New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03... Scientists Fear Visa Trouble Will Drive Foreign Students Away CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — When Alena Shkumatava opens the door to the “fish lab” at the Whitehead Institute of M.I.T., she encounters warm, aquarium-scented air and shelf after shelf of foot-long tanks, each containing one or more zebra fish. She studies the tiny fish in her quest to unravel one of the knottiest problems in biology: how the acting of genes is encouraged or inhibited in cells. The work, focusing on genetic material called micro-RNAs, is ripe with promise. But Dr. Shkumatava, a postdoctoral researcher from Belarus, will not pursue it in the United States, she said, partly because of what happened last year, when she tried to renew her visa. What should have been a short visit with her family in Belarus punctuated by a routine trip to an American consulate turned into a three-month nightmare of bureaucratic snafus, lost documents and frustrating encounters with embassy employees. “If you write an e-mail, there is no one replying to you,” she said. “Unfortunately, this is very common.” Dr. Shkumatava, who ended up traveling to Moscow for a visa, is among the several hundred thousand students who need a visa to study in the United States. People at universities and scientific organizations who study the issue say they have heard increasing complaints of visa delays since last fall, particularly for students in science engineering and other technical fields. A State Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that delays of two or three months were common and attributed the problem to “an unfortunate staffing shortage.” The issue matters because American universities rely on foreign students to fill slots in graduate and postdoctoral science and engineering programs. Foreign talent also fuels scientific and technical innovation in American labs. And the United States can no longer assume that this country is everyone’s first choice for undergraduate, graduate or postgraduate work. Albert H. Teich, the director of science and policy programs at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, organized a meeting on the subject in January with representatives from the National Academy of Sciences and several dozen other scientific and academic organizations. Among other things, he said, the group will try to bring the issue to the attention of the new administration. It would be hard to argue against security checks for foreigners coming to the United States to pursue high-level scientific or engineering work. And some experts argue that people from certain countries — China, India, Pakistan and Middle Eastern countries are most often mentioned — should be subject to additional scrutiny. When visa applicants from problem countries seek opportunities in research fields related to national security, the State Department official said, he hoped Americans “would want us to look at those cases very closely.” Researchers and students seeking to enter the United States routinely encountered difficulties in the months after the Sept. 11 attacks, but as security checks became faster and more efficient, most could count on receiving a visa or a visa renewal in about two weeks. That appears to no longer be the case. “I started hearing this back in early November,” said Amy Scott, assistant vice president for federal relations at the Association of American Universities. “We are very concerned that we are losing ground here, that people are missing the opportunities to come to the U.S., to teach, conduct research or just participate in a conference.” John Marburger, President George W. Bush’s science adviser, said in an interview in the February issue of the magazine Seed that “it should be easier to get into the U.S. as a student,” adding, “We really need to be careful about our openness to the world.” According to “Beyond ‘Fortress America,’ â€ a report in January by the National Academy of Sciences, universities around the world now have the research equipment and infrastructure to compete with their American counterparts. When the United States puts up barriers, the report said, “foreign universities are well positioned to extend competing offers.” Or as Danielle Guichard-Ashbrook of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology put it: “There are other countries that want these folks. They are the best of the best. They have other options.” Ms. Guichard-Ashbrook directs the International Students Office at M.I.T. Foreign students eventually make it to campus, she said, although the path may be slow and bumpy and they do not necessarily arrive on time. Problems typically occur if they leave the United States — for family visits or scientific meetings abroad — and then find they need a new visa to return. She told of one student from the Middle East who agonized when he was called home to the bedside of his dying father for fear he would not be allowed back to his classes. He made the trip, she said, and his return was delayed. Visa requirements vary from country to country, Ms. Guichard-Ashbrook said, but because some students must renew their visas often and cannot predict how long it will take for their documents to come through, some of them spend a lot of time calculating when they can travel and when they must start the paperwork dance again. She and others said that students from all over — even the European Union and Australia — had had problems, but that they seemed most acute for people from China, India, the Middle East and Russia. Belarus was part of the former Soviet Union, which might explain some of Dr. Shkumatava’s difficulties, said Kathie Bailey Mathae, director of the Board on International Scientific Organizations, part of the National Academy of Sciences. “You are never going to have a system that is 100 percent guaranteed to get people in, in the time they need to be in,” she said. “But when you see problems recurring and the same sort of problems over and over — that’s when you know you have a problem.” She said researchers were increasingly unwilling to schedule conferences or other scientific meetings in the United States. Although the problem is particularly acute for meetings organized on short notice, she said, some groups are looking for sites outside the United States even for meetings scheduled two years or more in advance. “That’s unfortunate,” the State Department official said. “We want people to think this is the best place to hold their meetings.” The official said that time limits for visas were ordinarily a matter of reciprocal agreements between nations. Dr. Shkumatava’s case, he said, may have been further complicated because Belarus severely limits the number of foreign service officers the United States can have there at any given time. Dr. Shkumatava said her experience was particularly nerve-racking because she was kept from her lab for three months, just as she was struggling to publish new findings before her competitors. When she was required to hand in her passport in Moscow, employees at the embassy lost it, stranding her there for nine days with no documents. When she returned to the United States, she found that two colleagues had also been stranded by visa problems, one in India and the other in Peru. Dr. Shkumatava said she will probably return to Europe. Her husband, a computational biologist from Germany, left the United States last fall for a job in Vienna. She might have tried to stay on, she said, if entering and leaving the country were not such a “discouraging” process. “I got the visa and so I am back,” she said. “But it’s for only one year, so next year in December if I am going to stay here I am going to have to reapply for this stamp.”

harikancha · Mar 3, 2009 2:12 PM

  Here is another link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/bw/200...

bagbhalu · Mar 3, 2009 4:03 PM

desh ta jana man thiyo ni......tara k garne ......bau le yaha chora na petrol cha...na electricity cha...na kehi kam ko thegan cha.....tero thulo dai ahile samma ni kam payeko chaina....masters degree sidyayera pani......korea try gardai cha.....US try gareko milena....yestai cha ho jindagai.......kahile chabel dekhi gausala jam...kahile maitidevi dekhi putalisadak jam cha.......mangai testai cha ......bike cha petrol chaina....computer cha net chaina.......tv cha batti chaina .....underground pani cha, tanna mildaiyana......bhai ko school pani banda le garda hapta ma 1-2 din jancha.....yaha ko bhabisya ta dekdina ma ta bhanchan .....kehi garau jasto lagcha ni ....tara attah audaina

8848m · Mar 3, 2009 4:53 PM

Just wondering "Do you guys blame Obama for all these shit"? I Do

target2green · Mar 3, 2009 5:24 PM

किन ढेरै चुरीफुरी गर्न पर्‍यो नेपाल गएर। आनन्द  सँग फेमिली लाईफ बिताउन पो नेपाल जाने भनेको। हिजो  लाल्टिन बालेर पढन हुने आज लाईट छैन भन्ने, अमेरिकामा बसेपछी  बानी बिग्रिन्छ भनेको शाही रहेछ।  

bagbhalu · Mar 3, 2009 7:52 PM

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