The United States must work harder to attract the world’s best science and technology experts, not succumb to fears of espionage or intellectual-property theft, policy experts said.
“When you look at the costs and benefits…the risk of ‘there’s Chinese scholars in somebody’s laboratory’ are always outweighed by the benefits. And it’s like a distraction, in some ways, to continue to focus our attention in that way,” said Amy Nice, an immigration law and policy expert who previously led the White House’s international science and technology talent efforts.
Foreign-born STEM workers added an estimated $367 billion to $409 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product in 2019, Nice said, citing a report by the Institute for Defense Analyses.
But science and engineering enrollment for international students has dropped in recent years, particularly in graduate programs,…
