Reverse Brain Drain: Talented Immigrants Leave US, Take Skills With Them (LISTEN)

Though the U.S. has often been called the "land of opportunity," the country is losing some of its top minds to companies overseas.

In a phenomenon known as reverse brain drain, highly skilled immigrants and foreign students in the U.S. are returning to their home countries -- nations like India or China whose industries might seem attractive as U.S. unemployment rises and visa restrictions come into effect.

Does the U.S. risk falling behind as these businesspeople and innovators return to work in their home countries? Worldfocus.org's weekly radio show explores the emerging opportunities for highly-skilled immigrants around the world, U.S. immigration restrictions, and what all this "brain circulation" means for the U.S.

Listen to extended interviews with Hanson Li of a China-based investment bank and Yeniva Sisay, who grew up in the U.S. but returned to her ancestral home of Sierra Leone: China and West Africa beckon talented minds home.

Read the frustrating experience of a "slumdog immigrant" from India who is living in the U.S. on an H-1B visa. Rajeet Mohan also offers some solutions to retain and leverage highly-skilled immigrants in the U.S.

Comments

[masher]

07:07 PM on 02/10/2009

This is not an issue of xenophobia. This is an issue of fairness and federal regulations that manipulate the labor market in ways that hurt American workers.

If your concern is making like better for others then you need to work in those places to fix those places. But our labor laws is not the right tool for that.

But if you insist on "free markets" then open all borders to every country. That would be fair. I would support that. Make it so everyone has the same rights everywhere. That would be fair. But H-1B is not that. It is not even a 2-way exchange since it grants US workers no additional rights. It only grants non-American workers additional rights (the right to seek employment in another country). US workers already had that right but they do not get the right to work abroad or to trade in India tareff free.

How about that? Why not give US workers the right to export to any country from which H-1B workers originate? That would be fair because now US workers are given additional rights too.

Of course that will not happen because being fair was never the point of these programs. The point was to drive down wages and they have been successful. As a side effect, enrollment in math and science in the US has also declined. Students are smart and realize its pointless to invest in a job market that isn't fair.

[shelby35]

02:55 PM on 02/09/2009

How can you all be so blind? Whether your Lou Dobbs xenophobia or anti-globalization outlooks shapes your views, our country has a vested interest in skilled immigrants coming to build a life here. Education of the next generation takes time and pressure, which we have very little these days. Companies and products developed recently by immigrants have helped this nation in untold ways: Google (Brin, Omid Kordestani) ,Ebay (Omidyar), PayPal (Elon Musk), Access Industries (Leonard Blavatnik), George Soros, Metromedia (John Kluge), APP Pharmaceuticals (Pat Soon-Shiong), Carnival Cruises (Arison), USB memory sticks (David Sun & John Tu), Mighty Morphin Power Rangers & Inspector Gadget (Haim Saban), International Lease Finance (Steven Udvar-Hazy), Tamir Sapir, Garmin Industries (Min Kao), Kavitark Ram Shriram, Bharat Desai (Syntel), Vinod Khosla (Sun Microsystems) etc. We need immigrants for development of industry and education. Without them we loose an invaluable asset.

[masher]

07:15 PM on 02/10/2009

If H-1B was really used for "best and brightest" and for "critical" skills I would agree its ok...I might still be concerned about discourging investment in US education. H-1B would still be federal manipulation of the labor markets. If you want to manipulate the job market you should do it on the opportunity side (more and better educational opportunity)...not the supply side. The supply side discourages US students from entering math and science because it depresses wages for Ph.Ds and it is a huge investment to get a Ph.D. H-1B discourages that US investment. Look at the facts, enrollment has gone down for US students in math since these programs started.

Regardelss the programs are not regulated and are abused terribly. You need to do your homework on how this federal regulation is being abused to drive down wages for workers. Please get the facts before calling people xenophobic.

[NoToGOP08]

09:18 AM on 02/09/2009

The playing field is being leveled by Globalization. Except our Politicians will never figure that one out.

[Hdaryl01]

12:56 AM on 02/09/2009

Forget about the foreign national brain drain. People ought to start paying attention to the US national brain drain. A friend of mine got tired of working long hours as an attorney in CA. He noticed that wages, withholding, benefits, malpractice insurance, overhead, etc. kept rising. Taxes kept rising. No matter how hard he worked, one or more of these costs would limit his earnings to cirtually the same level, year after year. Which led to the question: "why bother". So, he shuttered his practice, laid 5 attorneys, paralegals and secretaries off, and moved to Buenos Aires. He paid cash for a house. Makes 1/3 what he used to make, and lives like a king. He is happy, and content. And, he has no regrets.

Many of my friends took short term international assignments when we got out of law school in the late '90s, and haven't, and won't come back.

The US is already losing its best and brightest, and most entrepreneurial. And, they aren't reverse migrating. They are US nationals emigrating, or becoming perpetual tourists in other nations. Maybe one day folks will wake up and notice............

[shelby35]

02:57 PM on 02/09/2009

Yes it is very disturbing trend that must be addressed. However, I believe that anti-immigrant feeling on the left and right will make it difficult to deal with.

[Deborah]

08:54 PM on 02/08/2009

Maybe we should educate American born children so we don't have to look outside of the US for the Best and the Brightest?

[Hdaryl01]

12:47 AM on 02/09/2009

Then, the educational industrial complex wouldn't get full tuition paying foreign nationals who don't need to rely on student loans, grants, subsidies, etc. Education in the US is a business. It's NOT about common sense, or national security.

[darnsannity]

10:36 AM on 02/09/2009

Educate including anchor kids .......

[dgscol]

01:45 PM on 02/08/2009

In a global world, it does not matter where they live. hey are probably needed In Latin America. Why has not the WTO taken them into consideration? THE IMF? The World Bank? Who is talking to these people? Why are they displacing skilled workers?

[darnsannity]

08:59 PM on 02/07/2009

Alright...Enough of tirades...

Now read this and wake up :-)

http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/population/012496.html

[sueinmn]

05:37 PM on 02/07/2009

Let them leave and we can oofer them rides to the airports. These corporations that employ them can leave also!

See if China will give you the tax havens like you have enjoyed here. I bet China and India will certainly make you pay your fair share.

All of you GET OUT, its time to reclaim America what ever it may be. Pick up the pieces and do over.

[mitGooner]

07:41 PM on 02/07/2009

Lol. Sounds like you'd fit right in with these peeps:

http://www.minutemanproject.com/

Honestly, could you sound more close-minded and xenophobic?

[DiogenesOfAlaska]

02:06 PM on 02/07/2009

Now THERE you have your talent-drain problem, dear Wall Street compensation experts.

Somebody crossing the street and changing the name of his employer into a Hedge Fund (if he can find one) isn't the unsettling threat. It means close to nothing for the financial system on the whole: he will simply do the same thing, now paid by someone who can afford to have that work done, rather than by someone who robs his shareholders blind to keep staff. As I said, if there is such a Hedge Fund...

But qualified people sailing back home is different. That's what will incur whopping costs at the aggregate level.

[LAJoe]

04:46 AM on 02/07/2009

Screw America & it's companies. My family lineage is traced back 8 generations on one side and 10 generations on the other, with a lot of Native American ancestry. Point being, I can definitely lay claim to being 'American', native or otherwise . I'm looking to relocate to another country ASAP, & take my hard earned skill set with me. Top of my list New Zealand or Singapore/China. This country & it's economics in the long run are going down. The Illegals can have it!!!

[nomoredead]

10:35 PM on 02/08/2009

Great plans LAJoe. I interviewed with two companied in Dubai 18 months ago and looked at Asia also. I highly recommend going to any of these countries where you will have many options. There is less growth now than 18 months ago but it still beats the US. Just plan a 1 week trip to explore the country and you will be shocked about the friendly helpful way most people are. Think of the unique abilities you have being from the US that the company there might need.

Also any young person should consider going to college in India or some country that gives them a head start into the business world. Why pay the ridiculous american tuitions.

[ohbitte]

03:11 PM on 02/09/2009

I am also going the same route. Good luck to all of us.

[Hare]

11:35 PM on 02/06/2009

First it was the blue collar work that went overseas and not many complained, cities lost many factories jobs and the poor became even poorer. Ten years later the white collar work left , yeah some complaints, but nothing dramatic. Whole companies keep leaving us to set up overseas. The ones doing this are not the workers but the owners. Who were the ones who hired illegals to do the work that supposedly Americans didn't want to do, who are the ones that made congress give these VH1 workers a way to come here and work for less? This tread has many confused individuals whose anger is totally misdirected. It never was the worker, native or foreign.

[collest cat]

06:07 PM on 02/06/2009

Slumdog is a derogatory term. It simply means dog living in a slum. And I don't think Menon is a slum dog he is respected skilled worker living in USA, if after many years of living here if he is called slumdog than it is irresponsible from the part of writer.

[harriettubman]

01:17 PM on 02/06/2009

So what? They should and need to go back to their countries to improve conditions. I don't believe this article.

[LyssaBarnes]

03:44 AM on 02/07/2009

I agree with you one this one. Between the corporate greed that lead them to hire these workers for less and the lack of innovation over the past 8 years it is no wonder these people are getting bored.

[banja]

11:59 AM on 02/06/2009

We need comprehensive immigration reform ASAP, the current system is costing America great talent. It's a global economy with many competing forces for this highly skilled workforce, we need to stop shooting ourselves in the foot with a very restrictive immigration system. I hope Obama tackles this in his first year in office, hey ,he won the Latino vote in a landslide, time to deliver on his promise.

[lvdragonlady]

11:37 AM on 02/06/2009

There are just a many smart Americans that can take up the slack of these people leaving.

[netzwerg]

12:38 PM on 02/06/2009

No there arent. Most foreigners do the work of 2-3 American workers for the same price. Thats why I like employing foreigners in my company.

[LyssaBarnes]

03:53 AM on 02/07/2009

Sort of a double-edged sword, if you ask me. The problem with American workers is the expectation of entitlements. It goes back to education. The notion that you are supposed to get good grades in school, go to college and land a decent job is the biggest lie perpetuated by society. We are cultivating one mindset, but it takes more than just a bunch of educated people with expectations to sustain a nation.

I am not slamming college educated people. The point is we need people from all walks of life and all backgrounds working together if we are to remain competitive.