America’s Future is Stuck Overseas

The numbers are better, but not good. Since hitting a low in 2002, post September 11, the number of foreign graduate students enrolled in the United States has been improving, albeit slowly. The importance of these international students to American technological and economic superiority cannot be understated, as former US immigration official Stuart Anderson writes. Foreign graduates specializing in rapidly growing sectors such as engineering or the natural sciences are a valuable commodity. Yet the US enrollment is suffering from a perceived US lack of interest in courting foreigners. If American immigration and foreign policy continues to make student entry difficult or undesirable, the nation stands to miss out on the smarts of a highly qualified population overseas. The leaps in American technological know-how of the last few decades have been aided in part by the work of foreign-born scientists. Now, competitive recruiting between the US, Britain, Japan and other nations will mean American universities will have to ensure that their programs are attractive to the best of the best. Immigration law does not now favor students who wish to stay in America after receiving their degrees, but changes are on the way, however small. In the long term, the US will have to trot out better marketing schemes for its universities if it wants to maintain its technological dominance. –YaleGlobal