A
multi-university study recently released their findings in a report that says
that
U.S.
companies may soon face a serious "reverse brain drain" of highly
skilled foreign nationals departing for their home countries, according to CNN
Money. The Kaufmann
Institute-published report, "Intellectual Property, the Immigration
Backlog, and a Reverse Brain-Drain" by researchers from Harvard, Duke, and
New York Universities, found that most Indian and Chinese foreign nationals in
the U.S. have graduate degrees – a highly desired asset in their home
countries’ burgeoning economies. "These
are highly educated people," says the study’s lead author Vivek Wadhwa.
"
India
and
China
would be happy to add these people to their work forces."
The
study examined the three primary categories of employment-based cards (EB-1
visas for ‘priority workers,’ EB-2 visas for professionals with advanced
degrees, and EB-3 for ‘professional workers) of which the
U.S.
approves about 120,000 annually. Those
conducting the study found that over half a million tech professionals were
still waiting for green cards in the
US
at the end of fiscal year 2006. "
U.S.
policy is creating a precarious situation by making green card applicants wait
too long for permission to work in the
U.S.
" said Wadhwa of the findings.
The
dilemma extends beyond manpower, according to the study.
Foreign nationals were listed as inventors or co-inventors in 25.6% of
international patent applications filed from the
U.S.
in 2006, up from 7.6% in 1998.
New Jersey
had the greatest percentage of foreign nationals contributing to intellectual
properties: 37% of patent applications listed foreign nationals as inventors.
Individual companies also showed a heavy reliance on foreign inventors:
Qualcomm, Merck, and General Electric had 72%, 65%, and 74% of their
patent submissions, respectively, listing the inventors as foreign nationals.
The
full report, published by the Kauffman Institute, can be found online at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1008366.