Biden tries to fix STEM reputation that Trump trashed
President Donald Trump trashed this country’s reputation as a desirable destination for the world’s science, tech and entrepreneurial talent. President Joe Biden deserves credit for his recent attempts to repair it.
In the absence of sweeping immigration reform, Biden’s actions are critical if we hope to again make our country a welcoming place for highvalue talent.
Trump’s awful immigration policies undermined U.S. moral standing and geopolitical interests. Family separations, Muslim bans and sundry human rights abuses got a lot of attention. But the immigration choices that likely did the most to undermine our long-term economic interests were probably more obscure.
These generally involved making life hell — or at least purgatory — for the foreign-born scientists, scholars, engineers and entrepreneurs trying to contribute to the U.S. economy.
There was the Nobel laureate denied a “genius” green card on the grounds that the applicant hadn’t sufficiently proven any exceptional ability; and the harassment of skilled immigrants through demands for expensive and duplicative paperwork, and then capricious executive orders that trapped their spouses and children abroad. There was the slowing of visa and work-permit processing, which injected greater uncertainty and cost into the hiring process. And there were attempts to slam the door on international students.
The number of international students enrolled at U.S. colleges had been rising steadily for more than a decade before Trump took office. But between the academic years 20152016 and 2019-2020 — right before the coronavirus pandemic severely ratcheted down college enrollments — enrollment of international students in the United States fell about 5%.
Other countries seized the opportunity: In Australia, over roughly the same period, international student enrollment rose by 50%. In Canada, by 70%.
Canada has worked hard to make its visa process for skilled immigrants exceptionally smooth and fast. Our main high-skilled worker visa program is capped (and oversubscribed); Canada’s isn’t.
International talent has been key to America’s enduring leadership in science, tech and business. Immigrant researchers and entrepreneurs have made outsize contributions to the U.S. economy and innovation, creating more job opportunities for Americans. And international students disproportionately study the STEM fields that U.S. employers demand — and that U.S.-born students are less willing to take up.
The Biden administration knows all this. And it knows that our convoluted immigration system must improve if we’re to win back this talent. Especially if we hope to compete with China, which has been churning out STEM graduates.
So, last week, the White House announced some initial steps to make it easier for STEM-trained immigrants to come to or stay in the United States. Another new policy aims to encourage more private-sector businesses to hire STEM researchers as exchange visitors.
The administration also clarified criteria for “extraordinary ability” visas in science and other fields. Previously, eligibility for these so-called genius visas had been somewhat murky, so relatively few people bothered submitting applications.
Establishing more transparent, objective and predictable criteria should encourage more qualified immigrants to seek these legal pathways to entry.
Biden is extending his hand to the students and workers that other economies have been furiously recruiting. The question is whether those coveted emigres — insulted, abused and jerked around by the U.S. government in recent years — are willing to accept it.