The advantages of foreign STEM students staying in the US

Tens of thousands of the world’s best and brightest minds flock to the United States to pursue STEM degrees at colleges and universities every year, and most hope to stay in the country long after they graduate. This ability to attract and retain technical talent is a huge asset in the race for global technological leadership since any country that hopes to drive innovation needs access to a robust and well-trained STEM workforce. 

Policymakers in Washington risk squandering this advantage if they do not reform the immigration system for a global, technology-driven future.

The U.S. tech industry depends heavily on workers born outside of the United States. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2020 immigrants accounted for more than a quarter of the people employed in “computer and mathematical occupations.” Eleven of the 20 most valuable U.S. tech companies as of this writing were led by a CEO who was born in another country. Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET) found that two-thirds of the startups that appeared on Forbes’ “AI 50” list in 2019 had at least one immigrant founder. 

The tech industry can thank the U.S. university system for this abundance of talented immigrants. The United States remains a top destination for international students interested in STEM fields, especially those pursuing graduate degrees. While international students accounted for 8 percent of the bachelor’s degrees awarded in STEM fields in 2020, they earned 40 percent of STEM master’s degrees and 43 percent of STEM Ph.Ds that year, according to the U.S. Department of Education. In certain fields — like math, computer science, and electrical engineering — most of the students enrolled in graduate programs are foreign nationals.

These students tend to stay in the United States long after graduating. In a recent CSET study, my colleagues and I found that more than three-quarters of the roughly 180,000 foreign nationals who earned STEM Ph.Ds between 2000 and 2015 were still living in the United States in early 2017. (Due to a lack of data, we do not know the stay rates for non-Ph.D. graduates.) 

Nearly half of the international STEM Ph.D. graduates in our analysis hailed from just two countries: China (31 percent) and India (16 percent). These students were far more likely to put down roots in the United States than their counterparts from other parts of the world: The stay rates for Chinese and Indian nationals were 90 percent and 87 percent, respectively. The majority of the Chinese and Indian students who graduated before 2006 became naturalized citizens by 2017. These findings contradict the claims made by some political leaders that many Chinese students who study in the United States return to China to support the military, tech industry and other competitive sectors.

In the global competition for technological leadership, the United States’ ability to attract foreign-born technical talent — particularly at the Ph.D. level — is a major asset. While Ph.D. holders represent a small portion of the overall workforce, they are critical for driving groundbreaking research efforts and educating the next generation of scientists, technologists and entrepreneurs. Without immigrants, the United States would not produce enough Ph.D.-level STEM talent to sustain its innovation ecosystem.

However, the immigration system is not set up to make the most of the country’s talent advantage. Unlike many other developed countries, the United States does not offer entrepreneur visas for graduates who want to found startups. Furthermore, the current laws limit the annual number of green cards that can be awarded to individuals from a single country, creating huge backlogs for people from populous countries like China and India. These wait times, which are sometimes measured in decades, present a considerable hurdle for international STEM graduates, and their effect on stay rates is not fully reflected in the available data. Should backlogs persist, however, it would not be unreasonable to expect at least some graduates who would otherwise stay in the United States to leave the country rather than wait years for a green card.

Today, policymakers have an opportunity to tackle the problems fueling this backlog. Legions of lawmakers and staffers are convening on Capitol Hill to reconcile the House’s America COMPETES Act and Senate’s U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, a pair of bills intended to retool America’s technology ecosystem for the growing competition with China. Tucked away in the 2,900-page House package are two obscure measures that would knock down barriers that keep top foreign scientists and technologists from settling in the United States.

Specifically, the bill would create a new visa program that would enable some 3,000 foreign entrepreneurs each year to pursue their startup ideas in the United States. It also includes a provision that would exempt international STEM Ph.D. graduates from country caps on green cards, making it easier for Chinese and Indian graduates to establish themselves in the United States. Should these measures make it into the final legislation, they would inject new talent and fresh perspectives into the U.S. innovation ecosystem. But failing to approve these measures could undermine America’s leadership in AI, quantum computing, synthetic biology, green technology and other emerging industries for decades to come.

Global leadership in emerging industries will depend in no small part on the ability to develop and retain high-quality human capital. Strengthening the domestic talent pipeline is an important part of building this workforce — and there is much more the United States can do in this regard — but attracting foreign talent is also critical. 

The United States remains a top destination for promising STEM students around the world, but the country is not guaranteed to maintain this lead. Countries like Canada are already making concerted efforts to draw in graduates who are stymied by U.S. immigration policies. If Congress fails to enact the reforms in the America COMPETES Act and address other chokepoints in the immigration process, more prospective scientists and technologists may start taking their talents elsewhere. 

Jack Corrigan is a research analyst at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET). Follow him on Twitter @_jackcorrigan.