Why Skilled Immigrants Are Leaving the U.S.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/bw/20090303/bs_bw/feb2009tc20090228990934

As this article pointed out, the US needs skilled immigrant more than they need the US.  Unfortunately, many of those workers are leaving the US and go back to their homelands, mostly India and China. These foreign workers, who are “young and educated”, play a major role in the US economy:  “immigrants have started 52% of Silicon Valley’s technology companies and contributed to more than 25% of our global patents. They make up 24% of the U.S. science and engineering workforce holding bachelor’s degrees and 47% of science and engineering workers who have PhDs”. From these statistic, it is clear that foreign worker make an enormous contribution to the US economy’s growth, especially in science related fields. As an international student, I totally agree with this article’s arguments on why these workers enter the US in the first place and then want to leave. TO many foreigner, especially students, the US is an promising place for educational and professional opportunities. The fact that many top universities and companies are located in the US is a proof. However, all foreign workers still have family and friends in their homeland, and that’s why they would prefer to work in the home country to be closer to the ones they love. Many Asian countries have cultures in which elders and parents are greatly appreciated and respected by younger generations, so immigrants from those countries have a strong urge to return home and take care of them. Moreover, in many fast developing countries like China and India, there are more and more job opportunities, and this fact gives skilled Chinese and Indian workers more incentive to return to their home countries.  

Despite the fact that it is more tempting for foreign workers to return to their countries, it is not entirely their decisions to do so. The US doesn’t have much supports for those workers to stay in the country. Specifically, many of them have to wait for many years, even up to decades, to receive their permanent residence status.  Before then, they have to work under immigrant status, which creates lots of inconvinicence such as they cannot change their occupation due to the risk of losing their VISA. Anyways, as the article mentions, “America’s lost is the world’s gain”. America needs skilled foreign workers to help it in this recession, but those workers’ countries need them more to develop.  It’s time for the US to share the skilled workforce with other countries all over the world.