News
By Robert Finn
Sidebar:INTRA-ETHNIC COMPARISONS OF NATURAL SCIENTISTS ON SELECTED VARIABLES
Several recent studies demonstrating dramatic increases in the number of scientists and engineers coming to the United States from other countries have ignited controversy that mirrors the current national debate over immigration.
Critics are blaming this influx of immigrant scientists for lowered wages, declining working conditions, and an overall decrease in job opportunities for American scientists and engineers (S&Es), particularly women and minorities. They have called for drastic changes to immigration laws as well as stepped-up enforcement of existing laws. Scientists who have immigrated to the U.S., among others, strenuously object to these conclusions, citing the value of immigration to the U.S. economy and to the development of science.
"[Immigrant scientists] create jobs. They don't take jobs, they create jobs," asserts Peyrets Goldmacher, a now-retired foundry engineer who emigrated from the former Soviet Union in 1979. Goldmacher ...
