[lit-ideas] Re: Useful travel Questions
- From: "Andreas Ramos" <andreas@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 5 Nov 2004 15:53:24 -0800
From: "Andy Amago" <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Dream on.
> Andy
Andy, this isn't just talk. It's real. In the Silicon Valley, the consensus
among friends is
that the long-term is over in the USA. The future is no longer in the USA. The
Christian
extremists will continue to take over the country.
Silicon Valley is one of the fundamental engines of the American economy.
But... at all of
the major corps, there are practically no US-born engineers under 40. The young
engineers
are nearly all foreigners. Nearly everyone I work with is non-American. Very
few of them
have ever ventured into the Red states. They stay in California, with
occassional trips to
Chicago and NYC. The interest in the last six months is how to set up offices
in SE Asia,
with eventually moving there.
We work with a number of offshoring companies now. They have offices in India,
Malaysia,
China, and Russia. Their engineers prefer to be there. They sense that
Americans (i.e., Bush
voters) don't want them here.
Read the following. We are watching the bedrock of the USA turn into sand and
wash away.
Foreign students are giving up on the USA. They aren't coming here anymore.
Soon, the best
and the brightest of the USA will begin to leave the USA. The best
opportunities are no
longer in the USA.
yrs,
andreas
www.andreas.com
Fewer foreign grad students enroll in U.S.
By JUSTIN POPE, AP EDUCATION WRITER
http://newsobserver.com/24hour/nation/story/1797241p-9666317c.html
(AP) - A new survey indicates the number of foreign graduate students enrolling
for the
first time at American universities is down 6 percent this year - the third
straight decline
after a decade of growth. Educators worry the trend is eroding America's
position as the
world's leader in higher education.
The fall wasn't as steep as feared, considering applications last spring were
down 32
percent. American universities staved off a comparable decline in enrollment by
admitting a
higher percentage of students and persuading more admitted students to enroll.
But the results of the survey, of 122 member institutions by the Council of
Graduate
Schools, are still alarming to educators. American universities are highly
dependent on
foreign students for teaching and research help, particularly in the sciences
and in
engineering, a field in which foreigners comprise 50 percent of graduate
enrollment.
"If you took them out of the system, we would not be at the same point we are
in many of our
endeavors - scientific endeavors and also economic growth," said Heath Brown,
the council's
director of research and policy analysis. And students who return home also
advance American
interests by bringing to leadership positions a better understanding of the
United States,
he said.
More than two-thirds of schools reported some decline. The steepest drops were
in business
(12 percent), sciences/agriculture (10 percent) and engineering (8 percent),
though physical
sciences rose 6 percent.
Experts believe a major factor is the difficulty - or at least perceived
difficulty - of
getting student visas under tightened U.S. immigration policies. Other factors
include
anti-Americanism abroad, and increasing competitiveness from universities in
India, China
and Europe.
The State Department has tried to streamline the student visa application
process, and a
number of universities have taken matters into their own hands, stepping up
efforts to
provide technical help for foreign students. The University of Texas, one of
the nation's
largest enrollers of foreign students, recently said it would reimburse
international
students the $100 fee they must pay to obtain a student visa.
Part of the motivation came from Texas President Larry Faulkner's frustration
when alumnus
John Coetzee, the winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize in literature, declined to
attend a
ceremony in his honor at the university because he feared the hassle of
traveling to the
United States.
UT had 638 incoming foreign graduate students this year, down about 50 from a
year ago.
Jerry Wilcox, director of the school's international office, said the visa
process is
improving, but many are still turned off by delays and worried that, even if
they get a
visa, they could be stuck again if they return home for a holiday.
Governments in countries such as Great Britain and Australia are working
successfully to
lure students who might otherwise come to America, Wilcox said.
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