We’re scaring off a new wave of Einsteins
America used to welcome scientists and other luminaries from outside our country. This was true even in the 1930s during the rise of fascism in Europe. There was little doubt that the fascist leaders of Germany and Italy posed direct threats to our security, yet among those encouraged to seek refuge here were German scientists, many of them Jewish.
From 1930 to 1941, a dozen Nobel-winning scientists immigrated to America because of the Nazi threat, and most found academic homes in major research universities. The most famous was Albert Einstein. Intellectuals helped the U.S. win the war and ushered in a new era of renewed vigor in physics and the biological sciences. Our open door to intellectuals also helped establish American universities as global academic juggernauts.
Today, close to a million international students annually study in the USA, and the faculty ranks of every American major college or university are filled with international scholars, researchers and teachers.
Over 23 years, I have served as the leader of three institutions of higher learning. What has surprised me most in the past year has been the number of foreign students telling me that they do not feel welcome in the USA, and also that they have no prospect of getting a job here after graduation. Many are from countries that were not part of President Trump’s executive order limiting refugees and visits from several majority-Muslim countries, but rather from U.S. allies such as India and Brazil. The message they are sending back to their home countries is that international students and scholars are not welcome in America. We must reverse this trend. Trump has an opportunity to reframe the dialogue on immigration reform. His administration should create a bold new higher education agenda guided by three broad principles: attracting top foreign scholars, opening opportunities for employment, and creating a pathway to citizenship for the best and the brightest.
One concrete step would be to work with higher education leaders and scholars to identify experts in fields such as biotechnology, cybersecurity and innovation, and pair them with top universities. The federal government could reshape immigration policies to favor scholars and students and by providing matching grants to universities that wish to hire or enroll them. The administration could also publicly encourage undocumented students and those with permits under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to stay in college and earn degrees, and offer them a path to U.S. citizenship once they graduate.
The question we must consider is: Would Einstein still seek asylum in the United States today, or would he be scared away by the current rhetoric and proposed policies? Based on what I hear from aspiring Einsteins, the answer would be “scared away.”
To change that, we must show that we are a compassionate nation, and that we understand the difference between keeping America safe and making America great.