Smart Immigrants Going Home 770
olddotter writes "A 24-page paper on a reverse brain drain from the US back to home countries (PDF) is getting news coverage. Quoting: '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 US economy and to business and job growth." Adding to the brain drain is a problem with slow US visa processing, since last November or so, that has been driving desirable students and scientists out of the country.
Get-Out-Sourcing? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Let them go (Score:5, Funny)
There's nothing special about the foreigners. We can make more.
You can't make more Foreigner, AND THEY ARE TOTALLY SPECIAL!
You're as cold as ice if you don't think so! Man, these head games you are playing really make me hot blooded...
Fortunately, they are still alive, well, touring, and rocking, so we don't need to make more.
Re:Get-Out-Sourcing? (Score:3, Funny)
Do you think this will mean jobs in India and China will get outsourced to a broke white boy like me now?
Your burger flipping skills are of no use; Indians generally are vegetarians and those who eat meat prefer chicken and/or lamb. Off course you could learn to cook chat items and open your own dhela on chowpati.
Re:Good riddance (Score:5, Funny)
I'm tired of the smell of curry.
Then you, sir, are tired of life.
Rest of the World (Score:5, Funny)
Our new paper, "America's Loss Is the World's Gain"...
Shouldn't that be "America's Loss Is the Rest of the World's Gain"? I know you insist on calling us aliens and think we use strange units like metres and kilograms but we are all part of the same world.
Protectionism (Score:5, Funny)
I like my protectionism like I like my women: passive aggressive!
Wait a minute... (Score:5, Funny)
Are you saying my immigrant coworkers who aren't planning on leaving are stupid? That seems both rash and mean. You take it back!
Re:Tipping point (Score:5, Funny)
No, a melting pot would retain the heaviest, which the US has quite well
Re:Good riddance (Score:5, Funny)
Oh no! The summary said PhDs and business managers were leaving, so I wasn't worried. But if the restaurant proprietors are going we have to act now. This is America, you can have your doctors and scientists, but for the love of God, don't take our food.
Immigrants (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Can you blame them? (Score:2, Funny)
No, my dream is always that the zombies are about to catch me, when I realize I'm naked and then start falling. Then I wake up.
Management? (Score:5, Funny)
They were highly educated, with degrees in management...
So that's our plan for destroying the world!
Re:Protectionism (Score:1, Funny)
Well, I like my women like I like my coffee: covered in bees!
Re:good riddance (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah I saw that commercial too. The Germans always make good stuff.
Re:good riddance (Score:3, Funny)
Everyone knows that the Germans invented everything important
Like those ShamWow towels! :D They're made in Germany, and you know the Germans make good stuff. Just ask Vince! He won't steer you wrong. :)
You must be a liberal arts major :-) (Score:5, Funny)
I conclude that you pulled that figure out of your ass.
Most people start college at 17 or 18. Eighteen plus four equals twenty-two, at least it does in my corner of the universe. I know I graduated college at twenty-two. Twenty-two or twenty-three plus seven years lands you in the neighborhood of thirty, again, for most values of thirty.
Does the math work differently when it comes out of your ass? Perhaps you don't realize it's not customary to take seven years to finish an undergrad degree?
Re:Let them go (Score:5, Funny)
There's nothing special about the foreigners. We can make more.
Well, not exactly. THEY can make more. If we make them, they're not foreigners.
Re:Tipping point (Score:5, Funny)
Well, at least we still have the most guns.
Hey! Smart people! (Score:5, Funny)
Get back on my lawn!
Smart Americans going home too... (Score:2, Funny)
The fact that these highly qualified immigrants are going home is exactly why U.S. citizens SHOULD get preferential treatment when it comes to laying off or hiring people; because while an immigrant can just up and leave to their previous country, we as Americans are STUCK with this country. How many Americans have support networks outside of the U.S. that they can turn to when times get worse? It is in our best interest that this country succeed, but this country can't succeed when it invests time and money in foreign students and employees who will just up and leave when the going gets rough.
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Plumbing Jobs (Score:3, Funny)
Probably a French Romantic Poetry degree... (Score:3, Funny)
On average, teenagers in America get their drivers license at sixteen. The minimum legal age to get your license in America is sixteen. Therefore, since sixteen is the average, half of them must have received their license before it was legal to do so.
How's that Moliere paper coming?
Re:Nice -- more of what we already knew (Score:3, Funny)
I can prove you wrong with one word:
Porno.
How the he** am I supposed to run a business... (Score:3, Funny)
If I have to pay employees enough to buy a house?
Look, I've got about 10 H1-B's working for me, and I'm saving a good half a million over hiring American workers. How am I supposed to afford a second house in the Bahamas? Honestly, you whiners are killing me here.
And my daughter wants a Lexus when she turns 16. Hmm, I've got an open position, and I can hire an American or H1-B... Tell me, honestly, that you'd tell your daughter she'll have to drive a 2 year old Camry because Daddy hired an American!
You people, such whiners. I tell you, these guys could teach you a lesson or two. Work less than 60 hours a week? Sure, FOR SOMEONE ELSE! Go ahead and try to leave - I can replace you in a week.
It's sad, but some of you reading this probably don't realize its satire. Hopefully I'm not bringing up bad memories of past employers for any of you.
Re:H1B's leaving (Score:3, Funny)
Don't you think this just means that America will have fewer people but those people will be risk takers (and one suspects heart breakers too). Plus, they will be the lucky half of the risk takers. Plus they have a Masters.
Sounds pretty badass to me.
Re:This is bad strategy. (Score:5, Funny)
No, it would increase the supply of skilled labor, thus reducing cost of labor across he board for those skilled positions. The immigrants would get paid less, and non-immigrant (native/already naturalized labor) would also get paid less.
I think this is necessary if we want to fix our economy long-term... reduce labor costs to make them more in line with global labor costs. Reduce our standard of living to more sustainable levels (unless you want to keep borrowing from China to support your SoL).
No problems with H1B VISA workers (Score:3, Funny)
I have no problems with the foreign workers themselves. They, like us, are trying to make a good living. And they do a good job at that.
But they have a much lower cost of education. Doing a quick google search brings up the following URL on the education cost in India.
http://prayatna.typepad.com/education/2005/07/what_does_a_uni.html
While the above cost may be amazingly expensive in India, you could quickly pay all of that cost back by scoring a job in the United States. The average cost of a similar education in the US is sometimes as much as 10 times that, even higher if you attend a private university.
It's not that American workers are underskilled or underqualified, it's that the cost of entry into the same field of work is significantly higher than these foreign workers. The cost of something like a PhD is even much higher than a simple bachelor's degree.
And people wonder why you can't find "quality American workers".
Re:It is a shame... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:H1B's leaving (Score:5, Funny)
Re:H1B's leaving (Score:3, Funny)
What if your company sucks, so you only end up keeping the unlucky candidates?
Re:There's plenty of room. (Score:3, Funny)
There are so many choices these days when it comes to almost any purchase that we take shortcuts. Economists call this imperfect knowledge. The basic idea is that doing the proper research to find the very best tool at the very best price is too expensive. Sure, my Stanley tool might cost a $1 more than your superior Irwin tool, but my Stanley tool was good enough and I get to spend my time using the tool instead of doing research. My time is far more valuable than the money I might have saved getting precisely the right tool.
In the case of you and your cat's paw you probably enjoyed doing the research. You are interested in tools and woodworking and so the trade off is worth it. I can guarantee it that there are lots of other choices that you make based entirely on marketing. You probably haven't done a comparative analysis on dental floss, for example, or window cleaners, or shoes. You haven't visited every restaurant in your area and tried every dish so that you can be sure you are getting the best deal for your money. Heck, there are probably some things that you eat on a regular basis that you wouldn't touch with a barge pole if you knew how they were made.
What's more, if you would have spent more time looking you probably could have gotten the exact same good cat's paw, by the same manufacturer, at a much better price. At some point, however, you decided to give up your search for perfection, and you settled for a tool and a price that was "good enough."
That's just economics. The basic premise is that everyone makes the choices that have the lowest opportunity costs. If someone makes a different decision than you would make that simply means that they have different priorities. Gathering information about purchases has an opportunity cost as well. That time could be spent on something else.
Re:H1B's leaving (Score:1, Funny)