What do Einstein and Google co-founder Sergey Brin have in common? Both emigrated to America.
An article that appeared in the May 1 issue of Business Week magazine pointed out that while software engineers are at the core of the information technology industry, the numbers produced by America's educational system falls far short of what the industry needs. The US Labor Department projects that jobs for computer and mathematical scientists, a category that includes software engineers, will grow rapidly by 40% from 2.5 million in 2002 to 3.5 million ten years later. However, the number of graduates in these fields produced by the US educational system will not be able to satisfy this need.
A survey of academic preferences among college freshmen found that just 1.1% planned to major in computer science, while in 2000, the figure had been 3.7%. This finding makes it clear that American students are looking beyond the high salaries claimed by computer programmers, and are worried that if they become programmers, their jobs may be taken by Indian or Chinese programmers working for much less.
The report also revealed that about 25% of students enrolled in graduate computer science were foreigners. However, these elite foreign graduates cannot contribute to the US as much as they once did, because of the stricter immigration policies adopted after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Moreover, Indian engineering students in the US are increasingly choosing to return home, drawn by their own country's economic potential.
The book The World is Flat, by Thomas L. Friedman, also mentions worries in the US tech industry that the amount of foreign talent that the US is retaining is in decline. One Intel executive went so far as to suggest that foreigners obtaining advanced degrees in technology fields such as optoelectronics and large-scale electronic computing architectures be given permanent residence rights along with their diplomas.
Business Week's article, titled "A Red Flag in the Brain Game," urged the US government to adopt a more welcoming stance, restoring America's laudable tradition of assimilating talented foreigners.
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