Op-ed: Foreign Students Who Study Engineering Deserve Citizenship

It’s time that we stop envying China, and start making the U.S. a friendlier place for engineers.

The fact that China is producing far more engineers and scientists than the United States is often cited as a major threat to America’s continued prosperity. The problem is real, but in many ways, it is misunderstood–and by no means is it impossible to solve.

First, any comparisons must take account of the fact that China’s population is more than four times ours. Thus, while China produces 100,000 more engineers per year than we do, the two countries are about even on a per capita basis, and indeed well below Taiwan and South Korea.

Second, not all engineers are equal. Many Chinese "engineers" do not have skills that their counterparts have in this country or other technologically savvy countries. And the fact that their knowledge is relatively rudimentary is significant. The entrepreneurs who will revolutionize the emerging bioscience, nanotechnology, and information technology industries are not likely to be amateurs working on homemade computers in dorm rooms in the same way that the trailblazers of the past did. They will need to be expertly trained in science and math, or at least be able to hire many others who are.

From: Inc. Magazine, October 2005 | Page 27 By: Carl Shramm and Bob Litan

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