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Foreigners help U.S. retain its scientific supremacy

The United States is still very much the top dog in the field of science and technology, according to a report recently published by U.S. think-tank RAND Corporation. But the report also highlights the vital part being played by foreign-born scientists and engineers, large numbers of whom come from China and India, in maintaining that supremacy.

“Technological and scientific innovation is the engine of U.S. economic growth, and human talent is the main input that generates this growth,” observed Titus Galama and James Hosek of the RAND Corporation in their study. “Immigration of highly skilled scientists and engineers allows the United States to draw the best and brightest from a global rather than domestic pool of talent.”

The U.S. must remain an attractive place for the world’s scientists and engineers to live and work, they say. Reducing the inflow of highly-skilled foreigners, such as by reducing the H1-B visa cap, could be counter-productive and may well increase off-shoring and outsourcing. They have suggested that the U.S. ought to make it easier for foreign students graduating in science and engineering from universities in that country to stay on and find work.

“My co-author Titus Galama and I think that as countries like India and China and, of course, Korea and Japan and Western Europe, continue to develop their centres of scientific excellence, we will increasingly see the emergence of a multi-polar world of science centres and increasingly global competition for scientists and engineers,” Mr. Hosek told this correspondent.

“And our response is that we think the United States certainly should not have the perspective of being the sole dominant leader but should realise that it will be one of many leading players in science and engineering research. From our perspective, we think it would be wise for the U.S. to pursue a policy that fosters greater collaboration and exchange of students and scholars between U.S. and foreign science centres,” he added.

The RAND Corporation report is just the latest in recent years to look at whether U.S. is losing its scientific edge. There has been concern — even alarm — in that country that the growing globalisation of science and technology and the rise of countries like China and India was working to its disadvantage. It was felt that such loss of leadership could affect the country’s ability to compete effectively in the emerging global economy and perhaps undermine its security as well. The RAND Corporation’s study was carried out at the behest of the U.S. Department of Defence.

Belying such perceptions, Mr. Galama and Mr. Hosek found that U.S. remained the dominant leader in science and technology worldwide. Their report said that the United States, in fact, “grew faster in many measures of [science and technology] capability than did Japan and Europe”. Developing nations such as China, India, and South Korea showed rapid growth in their science and technology output. But these countries were starting from a small base and did not yet account for a large share of world innovation and scientific output, which continues to be dominated by the United States, Europe, and Japan.

The U.S. accounted for 40 per cent of the total world spending on research and development. It had 37 per cent of the researchers in wealthy nations and produced 38 per cent of the new technologies patented by those countries. It employed 70 per cent of the world’s Nobel Laureates and 66 per cent of the most highly-cited scientists and engineers. It was home, moreover, to 75 per cent of the world’s top 20 and top 40 universities.

Foreign-born scientists and engineers are an important and growing fraction of the total U.S. science and engineering workforce, according to Mr. Hosek. The study pointed out that much of the growth in U.S. science and engineering (S&E) employment had come from foreigners who had either studied in the United States or who migrated there after their graduate studies. The proportion of foreigners in the U.S. S&E workforce had doubled from 6 per cent in 1994 to 12 per cent in 2006.

India, Europe and China are “the greatest contributors of foreign S&E talent to the U.S. workforce,” the report observed. The report shows that the share of foreigners taking advanced S&E degrees from U.S. universities has grown rapidly. The proportion of foreign students among those receiving U.S. S&E bachelor’s degrees has remained steady at around four cent. But the fraction of U.S. S&E master’s degrees awarded to foreigners grew from 18 per cent in 1985 to 28 per cent in 2002.

S&E Ph.D. degrees awarded by U.S. universities to foreigners rose steeply from 32 per cent in 1985 to a peak of about 52 per cent in 1994, after which the proportion declined and has since remained constant at roughly 40 per cent. Even so, more than half of all engineering doctorates went to foreign students in 2002-2003, as did 30 per cent of the doctorates in natural sciences.

Many of such newly-trained scientists and engineers from abroad opt to continue in the U.S. The already large fraction of foreign S&E Ph.D. graduates reporting plans to locate in the U.S. increased from about 67 per cent in 1992-1995 to over 70 per cent in 2000-2003. “Chinese and Indian Ph.D. graduates in S&E are most likely to seek opportunities in the United States, followed by Europeans,” the report said. The proportions of both Chinese and India Ph.D. graduates choosing to remain in the U.S. had increased and was over 60 per cent for both groups during 2000-2003.

The report found that the foreign representation in the U.S. S&E workforce was greatest among the younger people. Non-U.S. citizens now numbered one in five among S&E workers in the 21–35 years age-group, it said.

“Given the benefits associated with the foreign S&E workforce, the United States is likely to be worse off if foreign access to U.S. graduate education and S&E jobs is limited,” observed Mr. Galama and Mr. Hosek in the report. Instead, they advocated measures to encourage foreign S&E graduates to stay on. One way of doing that would be to offer such people a one-year automated visa extension so that they could seek work in the U.S. after completion of their study.

Had the U.S. become dependent on attracting and retaining foreign-born scientists and engineers? “By our estimation, there is a global market for highly talented people”, Mr. Hosek replied. “I wouldn’t say we are dependent but I would say that the United States has competed successfully both for foreign students who pursue science and engineering degrees in the U.S. as well as for foreign workers who have already obtained their master’s or Ph.D. in science or engineering and immigrate to the United States to join the U.S. workforce.”

(The full report can be downloaded from the website of the RAND Corporation ( http://www.rand.org/).)

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