'Reverse brain drain' threatens U.S. competitiveness, study says
Associated Press
Article Launched:08/22/2007 08:05:11 AM PDT
http://www.siliconvalley.com/portlet/article/html/fragments/print_article.jsp?articleId=6688092&siteId=573
SAN FRANCISCO - The percentage of patents filed by foreigners living in the
U.S. has tripled in the past decade - yet the tight cap on permanent visas
may force entrepreneurs back home to create rival companies in China, India
and elsewhere, according to a study.
Researchers from Harvard, Duke and New York University on Wednesday will
publish an analysis of international patent filings, calling the trend
"reverse brain drain." They warn that, without immigration reform, skilled
immigrants will leave the country, and U.S. competitiveness from Silicon
Valley to Washington, D.C., could erode.
"We've brought in highly skilled people and given them a training in
American business and marketing savvy, and then we force them to go back
home and start competing," lead researcher Vivek Wadhwa said. "Companies
lose talent, and workers are resentful and angry. It's a lose-lose situation."
Wadhwa, a Delhi-born engineering and business lecturer at Duke and Harvard,
and his co-workers created a database of inventors who filed patent
applications with the World Intellectual Property Organization from 1998 to
2006. Researchers wanted to determine how many were living in the United
States without U.S. citizenship or permanent residency status at the time
of their filing.
According to the report, so-called foreign nationals accounted for 7.3
percent of WIPO patents filed from the United States in 1998. By 2006, they
more than tripled to 24.2 percent.
WIPO, part of the United Nations, allows inventors to file a single patent
application recognized by at least 125 countries. Researchers didn't
analyze applications to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, but many
inventors file with both simultaneously.
Applications filed by foreigners were greatest in tech hubs such as
California, where they made up one-third of the state's WIPO filings in
2006, and Massachusetts, New York, Texas and New Jersey.
Foreign nationals at technology pioneer Qualcomm Inc. and pharmaceutical
leader Merck & Co. accounted for at least 65 percent of applications. Of
WIPO applications filed by agencies of the U.S. government, foreign
nationals filed 41 percent.
Although the number of patent applications from foreign residents is
rising, the United States isn't allowing more inventors to stay here. One
type of permanent visa for skilled workers, known as the EB visa, is capped
at about 120,120 per year. The limit from any single country is about 8,400.
According to the report, based partly on U.S. Department of State data,
more than 1 million foreign nationals were waiting for permanent residency
in 2006 - including more than 500,000 highly skilled immigrants.
It's impossible to say how many highly skilled foreign nationals have
returned home to start businesses based on patents they filed in the United
States. But with the economies of India and China surging, researchers
warned, entrepreneurs have opportunities unheard of five years ago - and
their native countries may have lower housing costs and be closer to relatives.
"If you've been on a temporary visa for several years, you get frustrated,
then you talk to your friends back home who are making about as much money
as you but they have chauffeurs and every luxury," Wadhwa said. "These
people are going to go back home. Maybe it's now just a trickle, some
anecdotal evidence, but it could become a flood."
Echoing concerns of many Silicon Valley workers, Wadhwa said the U.S.
should drastically increase permanent residency visas for skilled
immigrants. Just last month, hundreds of engineers, doctors and other
professionals rallied in San Jose to highlight the plight of legal
immigrants facing years of uncertainty while green card applications are
reviewed.
The report comes amid growing pressure from the tech industry to boost caps
on skilled worker visas.
At San Jose-based Cisco Systems Inc., more than 60 percent of WIPO patent
applications came from foreign nationals living in the United States - a
trove of business concepts and product ideas that Silicon Valley's most
richly valued company would hate to lose.
"Cisco and other U.S.-based companies require access to a 21st century work
force trained in technology, math and science to match our current and
future employment needs," said Brian Schipper, Cisco senior vice president
for human resources. "Innovation requires that we recruit the best and the
brightest."
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George Antunes Voice (713) 743-3923
Associate Professor Fax (713) 743-3927
Political Science Internet: antunes at uh dot edu
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-3011
