Nothing has radicalized me on immigration more than graduate advising. We are bringing many of the most brilliant people on the planet here, paying to train them as cutting edge scholars, and then making it pointlessly difficult for them to stay here and use those skills to benefit society.
My parents came to the US on a student visa and then transitioned to visa sponsorship by a company. I was 1 year old. We got our green cards when I was in 4th grade. We got citizenship when I was a freshman in college.
When I was in 🇺🇸 as a postdoc (from 🇨🇦) my visa said I had to return to 🇨🇦 for a number of years before attempting to return to 🇺🇸. The point, as I recall it, was so that 🇺🇸 could train people but not be a brain drain. In the case of 🇨🇦 no big deal. But other countries really need expertise to return.
Working in big tech, exact same. Colleagues are consistently so top notch, and we put them through so much absolute bullshit to get and maintain their ability to work
I deal with this all the time as well. Infuriating and quite honestly, embarrassing.
I think that is a new form of "brain drain"
I'm glad to hear that...as a non-US grad student, I was so stunned by how much time and money we had to spend, how much precarity we had to deal with, and how little anyone - advisors, fellow students, anyone - seemed to know or care.
Well - it also can be 'positive for society' if those highly trained people choose to go back to their country of origin. The world doesn't benefit from a brain drain. But it's also good for them of course to have options.
"use those skills to benefit society" is some strange mixture of liberalism as empire building and American exceptionalism, as if *our* society is the only one that counts or the only one in which a scholar can work
If I was in charge there would be a list of majors/universities where "you get a Ph.D. on the chart you get a greencard. Thanks!"
I have been working at Caltech for twenty plus years and the Trump admin during the pandemic was ruthlessly inhumane.