Abstract
This study updates the data on the numbers and the changing origins of immigrants into the U.S. with technical qualifications and ability, and the economic gain to the U.S. therefrom. It also provides new data on the quality of such personnel by examining the number of immigrants who are elected to the U.S. National Academies of Engineering and of Science, and also win Nobel prizes. It is shown that this immigration is a major continuing contribution to the U.S.; constituting substantial fractions (one third to one-half) of certain categories of advanced degrees. Using different methods of calculating the value of the education thus transfered one arrives at the general conclusion that it is roughly in balance with the total economic aid from the U.S. (i.e. in the order of several billion slyear in the last two decades). Immigrant engineers/scientists constitute about a fifth of National Academy membership and between 20 and 50% of the Nobel prize winners, depending on the discipline involved, with chemistry appearing as the native national strength of the U.S.
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Lerner, J., Roy, R. Numbers, origins, economic value and quality of technically trained immigrants into the United States. Scientometrics 6, 243–259 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02279359
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02279359