Opinion: Keeping STEM Graduates in the United States

April 2, 2012

Echoing some of the sentiments discussed on Study in the States in the past, Gary Shapiro, the president and chief executive officer of the Consumer Electronics Association, wrote an opinion piece in Forbes in which he discussed “the training of tens of thousands of foreign graduate students in sciences, math, engineering and information technology at top American universities.” Shapiro expresses his opinion that the United States should “seek… a return on the investment by incorporating them into our workforce (instead of sending) them home once their education is complete.”

To support his argument, Shapiro cited President Obama’s 2012 State of the Union address in which the president said that as soon as international students “get their degree, we send them home to invent new products and create new jobs somewhere else. That doesn’t make sense.”

Shapiro stated that if both Democrats and Republicans can agree that the United States needs to stop “kicking out the top students we train,” then why can a change in policy not be made? In the article he cites three separate bipartisan bills related to immigration that are currently in the House and Senate: the Advanced Degree Visa Bill, the Startup Act, and the Immigration Driving Entrepreneurship in America (IDEA) Act.

Source:

Training Our Competition, Forbes