Immigrant Scientists Make American Science Great

Happy 4th of July. We should celebrate our immigrant scientists

On this 4th of July, I’m re-upping a piece I wrote a decade ago for Pacific Standard on the crucial role of immigrant scientists in the American workforce. Because immigration is an important theme in the current U.S. presidential campaigns, it’s important to remember that immigrant scientists (including my great-grandfather) in both industry and academia are absolutely critical to our country’s global scientific leadership.

What I wrote back then is still true:

Science has always been most successful when countries exchange ideas, talent, and resources, which is why one of the National Research Council's "ten breakthrough actions" recommended to Congress is to "ensure that the United States will continue to benefit strongly from the participation of international students and scholars in our research enterprise." Our scientific preeminence relies heavily on migrant scientists, and that's a good thing.

In the piece, I discussed some statistics from the National Science Foundation’s 2014 Science and Engineering Indicators. The current 2024 edition reports that 19% of STEM workers (over 7 million people) are foreign-born. If you ask, what fraction of all foreign-born workers are employed in STEM occupations, the answer is 26% — more than a quarter of all foreign-born workers in the U.S. work in a STEM job.

If you look at the PhD level, the fraction of foreign born workers is even higher, probably in larger part due to postdocs, who are the backbone of many academic labs.

To keep science in America a healthy enterprise, we should continue to welcome and foster talent wherever we can find it, both at home and abroad. Happy 4th of July!

“How immigrants make American science great”, Pacific Standard, Feb 21, 2014.