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Comment by rayiner | Hacker News Reader

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So that foreign nationals think it's a smart idea to move to the US and do research for us. So that when they complete their PhD they want to stay permanently and continue doing research that benefits the US. So that despite country humanity gets the smartest people together doing work that might benefit the entire world?

A full scholarship to somebody that decides to move back to their country because of racism and xenophobia still directly benefits the US if that research was done here. The smartest students in the world passing on the US does not help the US. With more policies like this the smartest students in the US might move to other countries so they can work with a larger pool.

How many promising American-born researchers are we missing out on because we give away valuable training and research opportunities to foreigners?

Don’t forget that America’s technological heyday—when Silicon Valley was built in the first place—came during and shortly after the Johnson Reed era of immigration restriction. Companies like Apple, Intel, etc., were founded between 1960-1980 (the decade on each side of when the foreign born population hit the historical low in 1970).

Zero Americans are missing out because they already have a path to that work.

Your comments often lack evidence of these poor neglected Americans.

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I’m sorry I’m smart enough to separate the two distinct concepts of “what US government policy should be” and “what personally benefits foreigners like me.”

Responses like yours really make me think that the bottom line for many people is doing whatever benefits foreigners.

Apple was founded by the son of an immigrant, Intel's 3rd employee was an immigrant, and have you been to Silicon Valley in the last 30 years? Half of the engineers are foreign-born. That's the reason why Silicon Valley is what it is.

because you get to keep most of them with a really small investment. isn't that obvious?

These are not PhD students; they're already credentialed (either postdocs or full-time staff). We pay them to do research that aligns with our strategic goals so that we get the science.

Yeah, let's look at it through the national lense. For every researcher who defects to the US to make their PhD there and most likely stay, taxpayers of the country they came from have paid for the education of hundreds of students. Because they don't come from America where graduating essentially means a life of indentured servancy for all but the dynastically wealthy.

It's called brain drain, and doing the rest of the world the favor of putting on the brakes is something that would be quite far out on the spectrum you'd call "woke" if it was done for the reasons one would arrive at when really thinking it through (which clearly has not happened)

Imagine if it were the other way around, and all the top American university graduates left to do their PhDs and postdocs in Chinese labs.

Americans would throw a fit and say it was a grave threat to American technological superiority, national security, etc.

It's obviously good for a country when it can attract the top talent from around the world.

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