Technology Law Technology Law / Items

They're Taking Their Brains and Going Home - washingtonpost.com

Get Feed
They're Taking Their Brains and Going Home - washingtonpost.com
Description
Seven years ago, Sandeep Nijsure left his home in Mumbai to study computer science at the University of North Texas. Master's degree in hand, he went to work for Microsoft. He valued his education and enjoyed the job, but he worried about his aging parents. He missed watching cricket, celebrating Hindu festivals and following the twists of Indian politics. His wife was homesick, too, and her visa didn't allow her to work.

Not long ago, Sandeep would have faced a tough choice: either go home and give up opportunities for wealth and U.S. citizenship, or stay and bide his time until his application for a green card goes through. But last year, Sandeep returned to India and landed a software development position with Amazon.com in Hyderabad. He and his wife live a few blocks from their families in a spacious, air-conditioned house. No longer at the mercy of the American employer sponsoring his visa, Sandeep can more easily determine the course of his career. "We are very happy with our move," he told me in an e-mail.

The United States has always been the country to which the world's best and brightest -- people like Sandeep -- have flocked in pursuit of education and to seek their fortunes. Over the past four decades, India and China suffered a major "brain drain" as tens of thousands of talented people made their way here, dreaming the American dream.

But burgeoning new economies abroad and flagging prospects in the United States have changed everything. And as opportunities pull immigrants home, the lumbering U.S. immigration bureaucracy helps push them away.

When I started teaching at Duke University in 2005, almost all the international students graduating from our Master of Engineering Management program said that they planned to stay in the United States for at ...

Original URL
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/06/AR2009030601926.html

Comments

  • Public Comments

    • JDP JDP
      9 months ago


      IF we really want to "solve" this problem, then we MUST "discriminate" in several ways. First, we must scrap the system of quotas by country and go with a rating of all applicants across the board - not only by their merit but also by what the US needs. Second, we must delink the green card and H1-B processes from provisions that make it a single-employer slavery system, including actually requiring equal pay and benefits (and having severe punishments for those who don't). Third, we must protect American workers and encourage American students to achieve by punishing companies that move jobs overseas and rewarding those that don't; AND this should include limiting H1-B visas and green cards for companies that send jobs overseas, while rewarding those to companies that create jobs here in the US. Only in that way will there be some semblance of acceptance for more liberal rules for foreign workers and desired immigrants, but there will also be an incentive for American jobs, companies, and citizens - which is only fair and right.
      Twine News, Politics, techMix, Public Policy, Unintended Consequences/Unexpected Results, Technology Law, Accountability, Learning, law & politics, Mauro Magnani's FINANCIAL TWINE, World News, Activism, India, The Radical Twine, The Skeptic, The American Dream?, Learning Spaces, *Changing America?, China
    Add a Comment
Report This

Twine is about discovering, collecting and sharing the content that interests you. Learn More

Join Twine

Stats

First Posted By

JDP

First Comment By

JDP

Tags

Community Tags

Who's Interested In This?

Forgot your password?