Brian4Liberty
06-03-2014, 04:26 PM
A very extensive statistical analysis of the CS/EE portion of STEM professions, with a comparison of native vs. imported workers.
Go to the link for statistical methods and details:
http://www.epi.org/publication/bp356-foreign-students-best-brightest-immigration-policy/
Are foreign students the ‘best and brightest’?
Data and implications for immigration policy
The technology industry, in lobbying Congress for expansion of programs to attract skilled foreign workers, has long claimed that foreign students graduating from U.S. universities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are typically “the best and the brightest,” i.e., exceptionally talented innovators in their fields. However, the industry and its supporters have offered little or no evidence to back up their assertion. The claim is investigated in this report, with a focus on former foreign students now working in the United States, the group viewed by the industry as key to innovation.
The assertion that the foreign graduates offer superior skills or ability relative to U.S. graduates is found not to be supported by the data:
- On a variety of measures, the former foreign students have talent lesser than, or equal to, their American peers.
- Skilled-foreign-worker programs are causing an internal brain drain in the United States.
The lack of evidence that the foreign students and workers we are recruiting offer superior talent reinforces the need to assure that programs like H-1B visa are used only to attract the best and the brightest or to remedy genuine labor shortages—not to serve as a source of cheap, compliant labor. We must eliminate employer incentives for using foreign workers as cheap labor, and we must end the practice of using green card sponsorship to render foreign workers captive to the employers who bring them into the country.
...
Everyone on either side of the high-skilled immigration debate can agree on two axioms: (1) skilled-foreign-worker programs should be designed to facilitate the immigration of those who are truly talented, and (2) immigration policy that causes the loss of America’s own best and brightest from science, technology, engineering, and math fields must be reversed.
...
Though the United States should indeed welcome the immigration of “the world’s best brains,” are the foreign students typically of that caliber? The tech industry has put forth little to support such assertions. It has pointed to some famous immigrant success stories in the field but, in most cases, the people cited, such as Google cofounder Sergey Brin, never held foreign-student (F-1) or work (H-1B) visas (Brin immigrated with his parents to the United States at age 6). And more importantly, neither the industry nor any other participant in this national debate has offered any empirical analysis documenting that the visa holders are of exceptionally high talent.
...
For some readers of this report, perhaps the most surprising result here will concern work in research and development (R&D). The industry has emphasized that it needs foreign workers in order to keep its innovative edge over other countries, yet the data show that the former foreign students are significantly less likely to work in R&D than the Americans.
...
Thus, the first (and main) part of this report will demonstrate that Rep. Lofgren’s “can’t have enough geniuses” remark was unwarranted hyperbole. But what about a slightly modified version of Lofgren’s statement: Isn’t it good to have as many engineers as possible, even if they aren’t geniuses? The answer is no, because the H-1B and green card programs have been causing an internal brain drain of tech talent in the United States. As will be shown here, these programs squeeze out U.S. citizens and permanent residents from the field and make the field unattractive to this country’s most talented young domestic students.
...
Wage analysis of the NSCG college graduate survey data
We used the following regression equation to assess how salary is affected by age, education level, region, and original F-1 status:
mean wage =
β0 + β1 age + β2 age2 + β3 MS + β4 PhD + β5 highCOL + β6 origF1 +
β7 acad + β8 gov
There are control variables for age; for education, in the form of indicator variables to code a master’s degree (without a Ph.D.) or a doctorate (zero values for these variables code having just a bachelor’s degree); for working in a high-cost-of-living region; for having originally entered the United States as a foreign student; and for working in academia or in government.
...
Rates of working in R&D
Presumably much (though by no means all) of the innovation in the tech industry comes from those working in research and development positions. It is thus of interest to investigate the proportions of U.S. versus immigrant workers who hold such jobs. Fortunately, the NSCG data include a variable for this status.
...
The data indicate that in both computer science and electrical engineering, the foreign former students are significantly less likely to work in R&D, compared to Americans of the same age and educational background.
For example, consider 30-year-old workers with master’s degrees. In computer science, substitution into the logit formula shows that the Americans are about 10 percent more likely to be working in R&D than are comparable foreign former students (a 0.89 probability versus 0.81). In electrical engineering, the difference is dramatic—the Americans are 68 percent more likely to be in R&D than the foreign former students, with the probability of R&D work being 0.76 for the Americans but only 0.46 for the foreign former students.
...
Summary of the statistical analyses
In addressing any question such as this one regarding the relative skills and talents of groups of workers, it is desirable to consider a variety of approaches and multiple datasets. In the end, one should consider the “preponderance of the evidence,” the overall trend in the various analyses. The research presented here analyzed four separate datasets on five different variables, with consistent results:
- The immigrant workers, especially those who first came to the United States as foreign students, are in general of no higher talent than the Americans, as measured by salary, patent filings, dissertation awards, and quality of academic program. In the computer science case, the former foreign students are in fact generally of significantly lower talent in many aspects than Americans of the same age, education, and so on.
- The immigrant workers who first came to the United States as foreign students are significantly less likely than Americans to be working in R&D, the industry’s main source of innovation. This is true for both computer science and electrical engineering.
...
Much more:
http://www.epi.org/publication/bp356-foreign-students-best-brightest-immigration-policy/
Go to the link for statistical methods and details:
http://www.epi.org/publication/bp356-foreign-students-best-brightest-immigration-policy/
Are foreign students the ‘best and brightest’?
Data and implications for immigration policy
The technology industry, in lobbying Congress for expansion of programs to attract skilled foreign workers, has long claimed that foreign students graduating from U.S. universities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are typically “the best and the brightest,” i.e., exceptionally talented innovators in their fields. However, the industry and its supporters have offered little or no evidence to back up their assertion. The claim is investigated in this report, with a focus on former foreign students now working in the United States, the group viewed by the industry as key to innovation.
The assertion that the foreign graduates offer superior skills or ability relative to U.S. graduates is found not to be supported by the data:
- On a variety of measures, the former foreign students have talent lesser than, or equal to, their American peers.
- Skilled-foreign-worker programs are causing an internal brain drain in the United States.
The lack of evidence that the foreign students and workers we are recruiting offer superior talent reinforces the need to assure that programs like H-1B visa are used only to attract the best and the brightest or to remedy genuine labor shortages—not to serve as a source of cheap, compliant labor. We must eliminate employer incentives for using foreign workers as cheap labor, and we must end the practice of using green card sponsorship to render foreign workers captive to the employers who bring them into the country.
...
Everyone on either side of the high-skilled immigration debate can agree on two axioms: (1) skilled-foreign-worker programs should be designed to facilitate the immigration of those who are truly talented, and (2) immigration policy that causes the loss of America’s own best and brightest from science, technology, engineering, and math fields must be reversed.
...
Though the United States should indeed welcome the immigration of “the world’s best brains,” are the foreign students typically of that caliber? The tech industry has put forth little to support such assertions. It has pointed to some famous immigrant success stories in the field but, in most cases, the people cited, such as Google cofounder Sergey Brin, never held foreign-student (F-1) or work (H-1B) visas (Brin immigrated with his parents to the United States at age 6). And more importantly, neither the industry nor any other participant in this national debate has offered any empirical analysis documenting that the visa holders are of exceptionally high talent.
...
For some readers of this report, perhaps the most surprising result here will concern work in research and development (R&D). The industry has emphasized that it needs foreign workers in order to keep its innovative edge over other countries, yet the data show that the former foreign students are significantly less likely to work in R&D than the Americans.
...
Thus, the first (and main) part of this report will demonstrate that Rep. Lofgren’s “can’t have enough geniuses” remark was unwarranted hyperbole. But what about a slightly modified version of Lofgren’s statement: Isn’t it good to have as many engineers as possible, even if they aren’t geniuses? The answer is no, because the H-1B and green card programs have been causing an internal brain drain of tech talent in the United States. As will be shown here, these programs squeeze out U.S. citizens and permanent residents from the field and make the field unattractive to this country’s most talented young domestic students.
...
Wage analysis of the NSCG college graduate survey data
We used the following regression equation to assess how salary is affected by age, education level, region, and original F-1 status:
mean wage =
β0 + β1 age + β2 age2 + β3 MS + β4 PhD + β5 highCOL + β6 origF1 +
β7 acad + β8 gov
There are control variables for age; for education, in the form of indicator variables to code a master’s degree (without a Ph.D.) or a doctorate (zero values for these variables code having just a bachelor’s degree); for working in a high-cost-of-living region; for having originally entered the United States as a foreign student; and for working in academia or in government.
...
Rates of working in R&D
Presumably much (though by no means all) of the innovation in the tech industry comes from those working in research and development positions. It is thus of interest to investigate the proportions of U.S. versus immigrant workers who hold such jobs. Fortunately, the NSCG data include a variable for this status.
...
The data indicate that in both computer science and electrical engineering, the foreign former students are significantly less likely to work in R&D, compared to Americans of the same age and educational background.
For example, consider 30-year-old workers with master’s degrees. In computer science, substitution into the logit formula shows that the Americans are about 10 percent more likely to be working in R&D than are comparable foreign former students (a 0.89 probability versus 0.81). In electrical engineering, the difference is dramatic—the Americans are 68 percent more likely to be in R&D than the foreign former students, with the probability of R&D work being 0.76 for the Americans but only 0.46 for the foreign former students.
...
Summary of the statistical analyses
In addressing any question such as this one regarding the relative skills and talents of groups of workers, it is desirable to consider a variety of approaches and multiple datasets. In the end, one should consider the “preponderance of the evidence,” the overall trend in the various analyses. The research presented here analyzed four separate datasets on five different variables, with consistent results:
- The immigrant workers, especially those who first came to the United States as foreign students, are in general of no higher talent than the Americans, as measured by salary, patent filings, dissertation awards, and quality of academic program. In the computer science case, the former foreign students are in fact generally of significantly lower talent in many aspects than Americans of the same age, education, and so on.
- The immigrant workers who first came to the United States as foreign students are significantly less likely than Americans to be working in R&D, the industry’s main source of innovation. This is true for both computer science and electrical engineering.
...
Much more:
http://www.epi.org/publication/bp356-foreign-students-best-brightest-immigration-policy/