While the U.S. Border Patrol has its hands full trying to stop the flow of illegal aliens into our country, a Duke University professor says the nation is in danger of losing too many legal immigrants to their native homelands.

As reported in USA Today, Vivek Wadhwa describes this reverse immigration of skilled workers as a "brain drain" that is hitting America for the first time in its history. "What was a trickle has become a flood," he was quoted by USA Today as saying. He predicted that 100,000 immigrants will go back to India and the same number to China within the next five years. One of the lures for these talented individuals is the rapid economic growth of those countries, but Wadhwa says it means the U.S. faces losing its competitive edge in fields like science and technology.

Other experts agree. Suren Dutia is the CEO of TiE Global, an organization that promotes worldwide entrepreneurship. He was quoted by USA Today as saying, "If the country is going to maintain the kind of economic well-being that we’ve enjoyed for many years, that requires having these incredibly gifted individuals who have been educated and trained by us."

Wadhwa recently surveyed more than 1,000 immigrants who have returned to China and India. According to the survey, it would be a mistake to think of the exodus as a temporary trend due to the faltering U.S. economy, because respondents said their decisions had more to do with career opportunities, and improved quality of life and purchasing power in their native lands, as well as cultural factors. In fact, China is actively recruiting expatriates, offering incentives such as financial assistance and housing. A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, Wang Baodong, explained, "China needs a lot of well-trained personnel."

Many survey respondents also expressed irritations with the immigration process in the United States. "They're frustrated with having an uncertain immigration status," explains Lynn Shotwell, executive director of the American Council on International Personnel. Instead of waiting up to a decade for permanent residency, they are "giving up," she says.

The United States sets a quota on the number of skilled worker visas it grants each year, so there are not enough for all of the applicants from India and China. Applications for green-card status made before April 16, 2001 are only now in process. While they are waiting for permanent status, immigrants are restricted in international travel and in their ability to get promotions. Meanwhile, opportunities are opening up in their more familiar and inviting homelands. The International Monetary Fund predicts a 7.5 percent growth this year in China’s gross domestic product (GDP) and a 5.4 percent expansion of India’s. On the other hand, the U.S. GDP will likely shrink by 2.6 percent.

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Marc said:

	It's the nature of recession We don't need immigration at any cost. We have high unemployment with lots of highly trained citizens. This country does not have a labor shortage. Big business just clams this to keep wages and benefits low.
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September 22, 2009
Votes: -5

Bonnie said:

Failure of the American educational system Many of this immigrants have foreign degrees. Don't believe me? Using medicine for example (since that's a big topic these days), start checking where these degrees are coming from... Asia, Middle East, Central America, the Caribbean. Foreigners who have advanced degrees from American universities got their basic (high school, undergraduate college) education in their homelands. There are also foreign nationals in our colleges. Check out the major American universities. How many of them are "party schools"? See the kids at their frat parties. See the girls baring their breasts for the camera and the boys stripped to the waist, painted up, and wearing a big foam rubber "1". Read about alcohol consumption on college campuses. And where are the foreign students during all this? Back in the dorm, doing of all things, studying! We are a nation of high school graduates who can't read, can't do simple math, have no idea who Patrick henry was, but know all about Rosa Parks and Caesar Chavez. For years, we had kids being admitted to colleges based more on the color of their skin and their financial status than their academic capabilities. Sorry to tell you folks, but the chickens have come home to roost.

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September 22, 2009
Votes: +14

Vincenzo said:

Get Real Reverse immigration jeopardizes US economy? I don't know that I would challenge that assertion. But so does reverse discrimination, which is exactly what is happening with the most recent influx of foreign nationals in the past 10 years - especially in the STEM fields. The foreign national comes here to work, works his way up to a position that has hiring authority, and only hires his fellow-countrymen. I challenge all journalists to be brave enough to report on that.

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September 22, 2009
Votes: -3

Captain Gabe said:

	Make up your minds If they come here, they're "stealing jobs". If the leave, it's a "brain drain". Make up your minds.
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September 22, 2009
Votes: +0

WE must stop the invasion, Lowly rated comment [Show]

Brittanicus said:

Stopping the invasion But we must remain vigilant as the status quo has in their influence a group of stalwart politicians. They have secretly conspired to table E-Verify in the past and will no doubt try to eradicate it's accessibility in the future. Hundreds of pariah businesses are devoid of a conscious towards the American working man or woman. They have corrupted the lawmakers in Washington, with special interest money and extravagant favors. They have already indoctrinated some of our previously honest leaders with favors and in return we have seen the weakening of 287 G police training apprehension of illegal immigrants. Already President Obama has listened to Sen.Harry Reid D-NV, California's own Nancy Pelosi and Napolitano who have weakened other enforcement laws. Money was wasted on building the single length border fence instead of Rep.Duncan Hunters planned two-tier barrier as in San Diego? ICE raids have been reduced and even the No-match-rescinded. More money is wasted overturning enforcement laws, instead of using the full force of these procedures in combating the illegal immigrant invasion. IF YOU HAVE SOME SOLID KNOWLEDGE OF ILLEGAL WORKERS, CONTACT ICE! ADDRESS YOUR POLITICIANS AT 202-224-3121 NO MORE COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM! IT IS NOT IN THE COUNTRIES INTEREST. USE AMENDMENTS TO RESOLVE PROBLEMS WITH THE 1986 IMMIGRATION LAWS ALREADY ENACTED. Learn facts not rhetoric or lies at NUMBERSUSA & JUDICIAL WATCH

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September 22, 2009
Votes: -5

Andrea VM said:

Open Your Eyes Before Too Late Immigrants, legal and "illegal", educated and uneducated, go where the work and brighter future, including basic social services and education for their children, waits for them. U.S. has already stopped to be a country of choice for them, thanks to the ill immigration policies and senseless immigrant bashing. Walls at the borders will soon serve only to keep desperate US citizens in the country, not to stop the influx of the immigrants. Progress will be made in the countries which have timely recognized the need for the young, ambitious immigrants and accomodate their needs to the fullest (Canada). Open borders, free immigants' entrepeneurial spirit, young age would be a solution for our dire economic and spiritual situation, and not inhumane enforcement - sorry folks, it is late, but may be not too late, to turn back to the common sense. Not to mention that a new pool of immigrants, if legalized, would contribute in taxes, social security, payments for health insurance, while ICE's raids, incarceration, is only a waste of taxpayers' money. Look into the mirror: US is not a dream country any longer, it is quickly becoming a third world country.

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September 22, 2009
Votes: +4

MaryJ said:

Importing Poverty Andrea VM wrote: "Look into the mirror: US is not a dream country any longer, it is quickly becoming a third world country." ----- The US is becoming a Third World country because we've imported far too many Third Worlders with low skills, a high need for social services, and a limited ability to pay taxes because of their low earnings capability. California is the friendliest state toward immigrants both legal and illegal, and it is bankrupt with a 12.2 percent official unemployment rate (and probably an 18 percent unofficial employment rate.) Meanwhile North Dakota is doing fine and has few immigrants of either kind. So I don't see how mass immigration is making us richer; quite the opposite as the needs of native-born Americans are pushed aside in the rush for politicians to get immigrant votes. Moreover, affirmative action means that newly come immigrants who aren't white get special educational and career privileges that white native-born Americans, here for generations, don't get. We need to invest more in the people who are already here, and stop putting foreigners' needs ahead of the needs of the people who built this country into a superpower -- Americans.

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September 22, 2009
Votes: -1

SJD said:

Reply to MaryJ MaryJ said: "Moreover, affirmative action means that newly come immigrants who aren't white get special educational and career privileges that white native-born Americans, here for generations, don't get. " You are ill-informed. The majority of legal immigrants are highly successful Indians and Chinese. Affirmative action does not exist in the private sector where most of them land up getting jobs. Only government and universities follow EO/AA guidelines. Even there, the preference is for under-represented minorities, not all minorities. The comparison of the economy of North Dakota and California is nonsense. North Dakota is primarily a rural state with farming being one of the main occupations. California has a fifth of the US population and can never rely on agriculture. It was the Indians and Chinese who contributed to the software boom in the 90s. In fact half the software/IT entrepreneurs are from these two countries alone. The current downturn in California's economy is not because of them but for other reasons. Don't blame the immigrants for California's economic malaise. When the baby boomers retire, how are we going to pay for medicare, medicaid, social security? We need a healthy influx of young immigrants, and we need it NOW!

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September 22, 2009
Votes: +0

Michael Travis said:

	How have the Globalists discovered The New American? I am amazed that so many Globalists (America haters?)have taken time out of their Statist-Universalist schedule to leave comments here.
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September 24, 2009 | url
Votes: +2