[IP] Study Warns of Lack of Scientists as Visa Applications Drop
Delivered-To: dfarber+@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2003 10:31:12 -0500 (EST)
From: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Study Warns of Lack of Scientists as Visa Applications Drop
November 20, 2003
By JAMES GLANZ
The dependence on foreign-born scientists and engineers in
the United States soared in the 1990's, raising questions
about how the nation will sustain its technology-driven
economy as competition for brainpower increases worldwide,
the National Science Board said on Wednesday.
The board, a federal advisory body established by Congress,
said it also found a large drop in the number of successful
visa applications from foreign scientists, suggesting that
the United States no longer dominates the global
marketplace for technical talent as it once did.
"As the jobs grew in the United States, we relied more
heavily on students from abroad," said Dr. Joseph A. Miller
Jr., senior vice president and chief technology officer at
Corning and the chairman of the task force that produced
the board's report on the findings. "All of this causes
great concern, for us, for the future of our science and
engineering work force."
From 1990 to 2000, the board reported, the percentage of
foreign-born workers in science and engineering with
doctoral degrees in the United States leaped to 38 percent
from 24 percent.
Compiled by the National Science Foundation, which the
board oversees, the statistics are not yet available beyond
2000. But by analyzing figures provided by the Office of
Immigration Statistics, the board found that from 2001 to
2002, the number of temporary worker visas issued for jobs
in science and technology plummeted by 55 percent, to
74,000 from 166,000.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, successful visa
applications in all categories have fallen, said Stuart
Patt, a spokesman for the consular affairs bureau of the
State Department, to 6.5 million in the 2003 fiscal year
from 10 million in the 2001 fiscal year. Heightened
security fears and marketing efforts by other countries for
international tourist dollars may have contributed to the
overall drop, Mr. Patt said.
Many American scientists have complained that it has been
more difficult for their foreign colleagues to come to the
United States since Sept. 11. Mr. Patt confirmed that the
State Department had placed foreign scientists and
engineers under greater scrutiny.
"We take a closer look at the technology-transfer issues
involved in those applications - the exchange of not only
goods and services but also knowledge," Mr. Patt said.
"That is one factor that affects the science and
engineering applicants a little differently than others."
Mr. Patt said the falloff in worker visas over all had
occurred because there were fewer applicants, not because
substantially greater numbers have been rejected. Whatever
the reason, said Dr. Diana S. Natalicio, president of the
University of Texas at El Paso and vice chairwoman of the
science board, the numbers show that the nation could soon
face a shortage of talent in critical areas of science and
technology.
The United States, Dr. Natalicio said, is not educating
enough of its own students in those areas to satisfy the
technology-hungry marketplace.
"If these trend lines continue, we're going to have an
undersupply," Dr. Natalicio said. In part because of the
international impact of Sept. 11, "the flexibility in the
system has been greatly reduced."
Particularly worrisome is the low interest in scientific
careers among one of the fastest-growing demographic
sectors of the population, Hispanic Americans, Dr.
Natalicio said. While American whites produce an average of
6.3 bachelor's degrees in science and engineering per 100
people 18 to 24, Hispanics produce 2.4, the report found.
Another fast-growing, but much smaller group, Asian and
Pacific Islander Americans, is much more prolific in the
sciences, producing 14.7 degrees per 100 people in the same
age group.
The board recommended taking a variety of steps to reverse
these trends, including improvements in equipment, teacher
training and financing in science programs from
kindergarten through undergraduate levels.
"I think we can turn the situation around fairly quickly if
we deal with some of the problems" that push students away
from scientific careers, said Dr. George M. Langford, a
board member who is a professor in the department of
biological science at Dartmouth College.
Dr. Steven E. Koonin, a professor of theoretical physics
who is provost of the California Institute of Technology,
and who was not involved in the study, said that the
combination of increasing worldwide competition for
technical talent and the unpopularity of careers in science
in the United States went a long way toward explaining the
results.
Many other countries, Dr. Koonin said, "realize that
science is the way you move society forward," and have
labored to become "more attractive venues in which to do
scientific and technical work."
Another factor, he said, is that science tends to be
"populated by the children of immigrants and the lower
economic classes, because it is still a meritocracy and you
can succeed on your brains and hard work."
With increasing prosperity in America, he said, "the
children of the higher socioeconomic strata are pursuing
other careers, where you don't have to work as hard."
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/20/national/20SCIE.html?ex=1070342272&ei=1&en=8f0e9ae1aa7aed91
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