America's reverse brain drain

Washington Post - They're Taking Their Brains and Going Home

For the past few decades the US has been a major attraction for educated foreigners and foreign-born US-college graduates. Foreign students would study at US universities then graduate into the US workforce and make up a large part of the scientific and technological community. Nearly 25% of all international patents name foreigners living (and working) in the US as the inventors. The 2000 census showed that while immigrants were only 12% of the population, 47% of all US scientist- and engineer-doctorates were immigrants. The article focuses mostly on Indian and Chinese migrants, India and China being the two major countries that suffered 'brain drain' into the US during past decades. But this trend is threatened by flagging US employment opportunities, greater business and growth opportunities in India and China, and a 'lumbering US Immigration bureaucracy'. The myriad problems associated with getting a visa for an employed foreign national in the US is highlighted in this article.