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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsStuck in Visa Debate, U.S. Risks Losing Researchers
One more step forward for Idiocracy in the USA!
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/14/world/americas/stuck-in-visa-debate-us-risks-losing-researchers.html?action=click&contentCollection=Americas
Mr. Chen, whose work on cholesterol metabolism helped him win a job competition this year at the National Institutes of Health, is instead making plans to return home to China and his undergraduate institution, Peking University.
As the world grows more interconnected, says Mr. Simon, distance from the United States becomes less of an impediment to career success.
Mnemosyne
(21,363 posts)pnwmom
(108,978 posts)The "shortage" in STEM fields is contrived.
Here in Seattle, take Boeing, for example. Tthey're laying off thousands of highly qualified, highly educated scientists and engineers -- some at the top of the world in their field. And they're replacing them with new hires at four "centers of excellence" in non-union states -- 40% of whom will be new degree holders.
So I don't mind a bit if some of the Phd's we educated here decide to take their degrees back to help develop their own countries.
RKP5637
(67,108 posts)in terms of the pursuit of knowledge, which IMO in the ideal world has no borders. ... then, came capitalizing on the benefit of cheap labor ... and the destruction of American jobs for the benefit of cheap labor. ... naively, for that instance, I forgot about the latter in my initial post. Sometimes I tend to think in the ideal world forgetting how often is it corrupted in favor monetary value. I see your point!
pnwmom
(108,978 posts)no chance of getting jobs in China -- even if they wanted to leave everything here and go there.
And yes -- everything has become about cheap labor. And it's about turning human beings, as much as possible, into interchangeable robots for corporations.
I remember reading years ago in an engineering magazine about how engineers would have to get used to frequent job changes -- around the world. Well, not everyone is cut out for that kind of life. MOST people are not cut out for that kind of life -- constant moves, just to maintain some reasonable standard of living. And not just frequent moves, but moves all over the world. And yet there was no recognition at all in the magazine piece about the kind of impact this new career path would have on human lives.
I've been the chair on several faculty searches, and committee member on several others. There are ALWAYS at least 10-20 very highly qualified applicants for every faculty opening (even small schools) in a broad field like Biology or Chemistry. Often there are more than 100 applicants for a position. I'm not going to shed tears about losing some scientists to other countries.
LittleBlue
(10,362 posts)More jobs for citizens, and less brain drain on the countries that need their scientists to build domestic businesses. Win-win.
kath
(10,565 posts)Has been decimated. Something like 1000 labs have been shut down in the past decade or less.
We are losing a whole generation of scientists, and they're not coming back.
it's absolutely shameful.
RKP5637
(67,108 posts)just where are TPTB trying to take the US. We are not post WWII now where the US was sort of the only game in town. Other countries are taking the lead and day-by-day the US sinks farther and farther down in world rankings in so many areas. ... eventually, the bubble will burst and is already leaking badly!