“An astounding 60 percent of the top science students in the United States and 65 percent of the top math students are the children of immigrants. In addition, foreign-born high school students make up 50 percent of the 2004 U.S.Math Olympiad’s top scorers, 38 percent of the U.S. Physics Team, and 25 percent of the Intel Science Talent Search finalists—the United States’ most prestigious awards for young scientists and mathematicians.”
^ a b Anderson, ‘The Multiplier Effect’, International Educator. 2004.
33% of science and engineering PhD candidates are foreign born. We are not educating and graduating enough American born science and engineering students at the Masters and PhD level. Just drop by a college of engineering and see how many students are born in the USA.
Maybe the H1-B visas are part of the problem, but it isn’t the entire problem. I know too many people who are frustrated by the lack of qualified American candidates for technical jobs. My neighbor works for a geotechnical company and was looking for a geotechnical/groundwater modeling engineer. He showed me the stack of resumes he received. There were only 2 which were American, the other 95 were foreign born.
Raise wages and you will attract more people into the profession over time. That is the American capitalist way. Further, you have to educate young people to get them into the pipeline for math and science related careers. My kids have had some very fine math and science teachers in their public schools. That isn’t always the case, and my wife and I moved to where we live to get into a good school district. Others who are not so fortunate are going to have to work harder on their own. Cutting the rewards for their efforts won’t encourage them (i.e. higher taxes and or a change in policy that allows for more foreign competition into the country).
So he has two applicants, he only needed one. Tell him to make his choice.
There are places that are ok, but engineering as whole is a shaky field to be in. Most HR managers would rather pay peanuts to five engineers in India than pay for one American.