Does Drano work on the economy?

Here's a link to an article in today's Time Europe Magazine about recent attempts to plug the "brain drain" that's plagued European research for decades. The problem, essentially, is that the best and brightest European scientists have been lured out of their home countries and into the US. Why? Because America offers the lure of "generous funding, better facilities, and meritocratic culture." All in all, that means a better environment in which to work. It also means less money for Europe. "Billions of euros and tens of thousands of jobs are at stake, because science drives economic growth in the IT, biotech and pharmaceutical sectors." In this case at least, bad for Europe = good for America. That's become particularly important in the last couple of decades. Blue-collar American jobs are going to Asia, where they can be done cheaper. We need to find new jobs that can't. If that means continuing to import eggheads from Ireland and Italy, then I'm all for it.

While the Time article deals with ways in which the EU is committing to fight the brain drain, it fails to mention that here at home America has started kicking its own ass. Here's an op-ed piece (originally published in the NY Times) written by Harvard professor Joseph Nye. It starts out "[l]ast year, the number of foreign students at American colleges and universities fell for the first time since 1971. Recent reports show that total foreign student enrollment in our 2,700 colleges and universities dropped 2.4 percent, with a much sharper loss at large research institutions. Two-thirds of the 25 universities with the most foreign students reported major enrollment declines." It's not that we don't want foreign students. It's that they can't get here. Since 9/11, the hassle of getting a visa to study here has turned from tough to nightmarish. One of my own friends, a doctoral student from China, went home for a month-long visit and ended up staying for about a year - stuck on a leash made of red tape.

Nye goes on to point out that "[t]he costs to the American economy are significant. Educating foreign students is a $13 billion industry. Moreover, the United States does not produce enough home-grown doctoral students in science and engineering to meet our needs."

The problem extends beyond science as well. In this great article on America's shrinking significance in the world economy, Slate.com editorialist Daniel Gross points out that Wall Street is also suffering. "Young foreign wannabe executives are shunning the United States. Business Week earlier this year lamented the 'staggering' declines in applications of foreigners to U.S. business schools—down 24 percent at Wharton in 2004. [T]he number of foreigners taking the GMAT has fallen 27 percent since 2002, and... 74 percent of the schools [surveyed] saw declines in international applications in 2004. Thanks in part to the sharp reductions in the availability of H1-B visas—from about 200,000 in fiscal 2001 to about 65,000 this year—legions of skilled foreigners now ply their trades at home, or in other countries, instead of helping to build businesses here."

Though we can't disregard the very real security concerns that America must now consider when accepting foreign workers and students, the cost of shoving a fat bureaucratic hairball up the brain drain seems to outweigh the risk. Here's a problem we need to solve. Let's write some congresspeople.

One more thing. None of those articles mention the anti-intellectual clouds that keep popping up in the current conservative climate. (Creationism, for example). They're enough to make a scientist pretty uncomfortable. I can think of at least one who's planning to leave for England for part of his career. Me.