U.S. losing STEM war due to immigration policy, global fight
As global competition for STEM students intensifies, other nations are improving foreign talent recruitment. A new report faults U.S. immigration policy for this outcome.
The U.S. is at risk of losing its first-place status for attracting foreign science, technology, engineering and mathematics workers, thanks to outmoded and rigid immigration policies. Other nations, including the European Union, Canada and the United Kingdom, are becoming more favorable destinations with more streamlined and nimble immigration processes, according to a new report released Thursday.
"The global competition for talent is fiercer than ever," stated the report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense and funded by Congress. STEM workers increasingly choose rival nations "in part due to more aggressive talent recruitment efforts."
The report criticized Congress for failing to reform and update immigration policies, which poses risks to national security and economic competitiveness. It called for increasing green cards for people working in critical science, engineering and technology areas.
The need for STEM talent is especially pronounced in the defense-related industries.
Mark Barteau Professor of chemical engineering, Texas A&M University
"The need for STEM talent is especially pronounced in the defense-related industries," said Mark Barteau, a professor of chemical engineering at Texas A&M University and chair of the committee that prepared the report. About half of the STEM workers with advanced degrees in the defense industrial base are foreign-born, he said, during a webinar on Thursday to present the findings.
Barteau said it will take the U.S. at least a generation to "develop sufficient domestic STEM talent to fully support the nation's research and innovation needs."
Immigration policy changes needed
The report recommended changes to U.S. immigration policy, including creating a category for permanent residents free from per-country cap restrictions or numerical limitations. Currently, the per-country cap limits immigration from any one country to 7% annually, which can cause long waits particularly for workers from India and China.
The National Academies committee was mostly composed of university academics, but it did include representatives from STEM industries such as Hsiao-Wuen Hon, who retired in 2023 from Microsoft as its corporate vice president of the Asia-Pacific R&D Group and Microsoft Research Asia, and industry officials from UL Research Institutes, The Mitre Corp. and Ginkgo Bioworks.
Specific visa programs used by employers are examined in the study. The Optional Practical Training (OPT) Program, for instance, allows foreign nationals to work on their student visas for 12 months and offers STEM workers an additional 24-month extension, for a total of 36 months.
The report viewed the OPT program as a critical bridge to employment, but it also acknowledged that some employers might misuse it, hiring international workers for cheaper labor and potentially displacing U.S. workers. Employers that hire OPT workers are not required to pay payroll taxes, which could be an incentive for hiring such individuals over U.S. citizens and permanent residents.
The report also said other nations, including "countries of concern" -- namely China, Russia and Iran -- have done more to attract STEM talent. It noted that U.S. attractiveness to students from other countries has diminished.
The U.S. Congress has been stalled for years on immigration policy. High-skilled immigration has been entangled in the overall debate about migrant border crossings and undocumented workers. No action on immigration is expected prior to the November election.
Patrick Thibodeau is an editor at large for TechTarget Editorial who covers HCM and ERP technologies. He's worked for more than two decades as an enterprise IT reporter.
