Date: Tue, 2 Dec 2003 17:50:13 +0000 From: Norm Matloff To: Norm Matloff Subject: amazing chutzpah at the Mercury To: age discrimination/H-1B/L-1 e-newsletter In the face of frank admissions by big firms admitting that they are replacing Americans by foreign workers AND forcing the Americans to train their foreign replacements, and much talk about moving engineering work offshore (and yes, it IS because it is cheaper, as numerous CEOs have admitted), the Mercury News has the gall to say that more American students should go into this jobless field. Incredible chutzpah. Norm http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/living/health/7393483.htm Posted on Tue, Dec. 02, 2003 Panel: U.S. science leadership at stake FOREIGN ECONOMY GROWTH, SEPT. 11 SECURITY CITED IN BRAIN DRAIN By Glennda Chui Mercury News New census figures show the United States is relying more than ever on the skills of foreign-born scientists and engineers. Yet the number of foreigners coming to work in those fields has recently plummeted -- and Americans are not rushing in to fill the gap, according to a report from the National Science Board. If those trends continue, it warns, the nation will find itself unable to compete with growing economies such as China and India for the brainpower needed to remain a world leader in science and technology. The panel recommends that the government spend more money to train science and math teachers, support college students while they study and entice more Americans -- especially women, Latinos and other groups that are now under-represented in science -- to work in technical fields. ``We're very concerned about our capacity to invent and innovate as a nation,'' said Joseph A. Miller Jr., senior vice president and chief technology officer for Corning. He led the task force that produced the report for the science board, which advises the government on science policy. ``We believe that competition will heighten,'' Miller said, ``and we will no longer be able to rely on the foreign-born to fill the gap and fill our needs.'' He acknowledged that the call for more spending comes at a tough time, with a growing federal budget deficit and many states struggling to make ends meet. In California last week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed cutting $270 million during the next two years from state universities; the plan would eliminate funding for outreach programs that draw minority students into the University of California and California State University systems. ``We realize this comes at a very, very difficult time,'' Miller said, adding that training the next generation of scientists and engineers must become part of the debate on spending priorities. The science board began its study in 2000, as the longest peacetime economic expansion in U.S. history was coming to an end. Its goal was to identify long-term trends in the science and engineering workforce, rather than react to short-term shortages or surpluses. While the number of science and engineering jobs is projected to grow three times faster than those in other occupations, the number of American students training for those jobs has remained flat or even declined, the task force found. Many of the American students who do earn technical degrees go on to work in other fields. At the same time, the number of foreign-born scientists and engineers working here increased between 1990 and 2000, at every level of expertise: from 11 to 17 percent among those holding four-year college degrees, and from 24 to 38 percent among those holding doctorates. However, another set of numbers indicates that this trend may be changing: From 2001 to 2002, the number of H-1B visas issued to foreign workers in fields related to science, engineering and technology fell by more than half, from about 166,000 to about 74,000. Miller said the task force did not try to determine how much of that decline was related to the bursting of the high-tech bubble and how much might be due to the security crackdown following the Sept. 11 attacks. The report said 13 countries, including Canada, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and a number of European nations, now produce more college graduates with science, engineering or technology degrees than the United States, when the size of their populations is taken into account. The number of Americans with technical training is expected to drop further unless more Americans can be lured into science and engineering -- particularly women, Latinos, blacks and Indians, all of whom have traditionally gone into science in fewer numbers than Asians or whites. The number of underrepresented minorities earning college degrees is expected to grow during the next three decades, with about 90 percent of that growth among Latinos, the report said. So recruiting more scientists from those groups is critical. However, the report added that the United States should maintain its ability to attract internationally competitive students and researchers from other countries. ``The good thing is that we've got some of the brightest people in the world doing research for us, and many of them decide to stay. Actually, most of them decide to stay,'' said George Castro, associate dean for science outreach at San Jose State University, who was not involved in the study. ``But it does make the competition pretty rough for our existing kids,'' he said. He added that the government could do more with the money it has by stipulating that grants used to hire graduate students in research labs go only to U.S. citizens. ``But they'll never do that,'' he said. M.R.C. Greenwood, chancellor of the University of California-Santa Cruz, said, ``Those of us who are in the science and technology business have seen this coming for a decade. It's the sort of thing you start worrying about, and now it's here.'' A lot has been said about American companies moving their manufacturing operations overseas, she said. But now businesses are starting to move their research and development operations offshore, too, ``not just because labor costs less, but because these countries are beginning to produce an international brain trust which is beginning to rival the United States.'' She said she views the trend as ``the biggest national security issue the country has today. It might not be immediate, like somebody blowing up the World Trade Center. But if it's not stopped, in 20 years we will leave our children and grandchildren a country that is no longer leading in innovation.'' _________________________________________________________________ The report, ``The Science and Engineering Workforce: Realizing America's Potential'' is available at www.nsf.gov/nsb/. _________________________________________________________________