“CIS” is Center for Immigration Studies.
Just click the link on the posted article to get to their home page.
They do much original research, and they also maintain an archive of all Ph.D dissertations on USA immigration issues.
I don't have time to search right now, but I'm certain it was a 2012 article.
As I recall, the survey included only STEM degrees, not the social sciences, but it may have included economics.
Also, I don't mean to imply that ALL those native born STEM graduates left their field unwillingly.
No doubt many have found more satisfying work in other areas.
As to salary, I find median salary much more helpful than mean salary.
Overwhelmingly, foreign technology workers earn near or below the median salary.
They are NOT geniuses.
They compete against recent graduates and mid-level engineers.
I can verify that from personal experience.
I live in the heart of Microsoft country.
Most of the foreign programmers in east King County are paid less than $75k.
They are nice people, they are competent, they work very hard, but they are NOT geniuses.
The “genius” scam spills over into the Ph.D arena, also.
Foreign Ph.D STEM graduates have wide latitude to stay and work in the USA for many years.
But which ones do?
Among Ph.D STEM grads from western Europe, Japan, and the Persian Gulf, 80% return to their native country.
Among Ph.D STEM grads from China, India, Russia, and eastern Europe, 80% are still in the USA after 5 years.
Once again, most of the Ph.D's who stay are NOT geniuses.
On a per capita basis, foreign Ph.D's in America have their work cited fewer times than native born Ph.D's.
I'll search for that link, too.
Bottom line.....
Politically, I think we have the same goal - bring the most brilliant scientists and engineers in the world to the USA.
I think that number is probably 10,000 to 15,000 a year.
I am absolutely certain it is NOT 700,000 a year.
Politically, I think we have the same goal - bring the most brilliant scientists and engineers in the world to the USA.That is correct. We need the right balance and we need the best and brightest engineers working for American companies.
I worked for many years as an engineer and as an engineering program manager and so I saw a lot of really smart guys and gals who weren't born in this country. I worked for several years for a Japanese fellow who was in Japan when the bomb dropped. He came to this country after the war and helped the U.S. become a leader in phased array and satellite antenna technology. But I've seen a lot of just as smart students come out of UCLA and USC and Purdue and Stanford and Cal Tech and MIT and do the same thing.
I did a STEM search on the CIS website and I came up with a couple of articles that may be the ones you are referencing:
THIS ARTICLE:STEM Sham .
Or it could be THIS ONE:Is President Obama Right About Engineers?
There is an interesting chart in the second article. Here it is:
I'm not quite sure what to make of it and I certainly don't know what a "General Engineer" is. Never met one but it doesn't look like a good category. But neither does Electrical Engineering. And note that there aren't too many Petroleum Engineers looking for a job.
A caution. Some of the engineers simply retired before they reached 65. I've seen that a lot and I managed it by a couple of years. And some have started business that benefit from their technical skills. And some are simply managers that would say no to the question of whether they are employed as engineers.
In any case, my real concern relates to who is getting into the STEM programs at our Universities. There are at least two theories running around:
1. The foreign students are getting the slots because there is a financial incentive for the Universities due to the higher tuitions paid by those foreign students.
2. Those slacker Americans are not up the hard work that it takes to get a STEM related degree.
It's probably a combination of both ideas. I'm not sure. But I'd like to know the truth.