Charles M. Goldsmith Immigration Law Blog on Lawyers.com

We Need Foreign Scientists Now

Monday, November 1, 2010 by Charles M. Goldsmith

There was an interesting editorial in the Tuesday, October 26, 2010 edition of the New York Times entitled, “48 Is Not A Good Place.” The title referred to our ranking of 48 out of 133 when comparing to developed and developing nations in the quality of math and science instruction. Perhaps even worse, we ranked 27 out of 29 among wealthy countries in the proportion of college students with degrees in science and engineering. The editors urge our government to improve early childhood education, to strengthen the public school math and science curriculum, to improve teacher training and to provide more financial and campus support to students who excel at science. I couldn’t agree more that this must be done.

However, taking these actions would only address the long range problem. There is a current crisis and an immediate need for something to be done now. As Thomas L. Friedman pointed out in his October 27, 2010 Op Ed, “Americas most important advantage is the ability to attract the world’s best brains.” This is what our immigration laws should be encouraging, but unfortunately, we have been doing just the opposite. This is an observation I make as a practicing immigration lawyer in New York for almost 40 years representing both individual clients and companies that really need foreign nationals to compete in international markets, especially during these very difficult economic times. I have seen a disturbing trend of foreign students majoring in science and math at our great universities abandon their “American Dream” and returning to their home countries because of the roadblocks imposed by our immigration system. I have seen foreign students abandoning their quest for a student visa to study science or math in the U.S. because of delays, denials and red tape incurred at U.S. consulates. I have seen American companies unable to fill a desperate need for engineers, scientists and mathematicians because of visa issues faced by foreign nationals.

Although I fully endorse any measures that will improve our educational system by doing whatever is necessary to increase our home-grown talent and our supply of engineers, scientists and mathematicians, I also believe that this is a long term goal that does not address the need to take steps now to enable America to keep its competitive edge. What has helped keep America great during the last twenty years has been on our reliance on foreign nationals educated in the sciences and math who have wanted to live and work in America. With booming economies in such places as China and India, these foreign- born scientists now have a greater choice about where they can live and fully utilize their advanced skills. We must revise our immigration laws now to make it easier for them to immigrate and feel that they are welcome. If we do this, we are doing ourselves a favor because we will be encouraging them to serve the needs of our great country.

For more than 30 years, the law firm of Garganigo, Goldsmith & Weiss has been assisting people with immigration, green card or visa issues. For more information on how our NY immigration attorneys can help, please call us at 212-643-6400, email us online, or visit our office at 14 Penn Plaza, Suite 1020, New York, NY 10122.

Posted at 08:58 AM

Topic: Immigration