"I believe most analysts of the labor market for scientists and engineers would agree with my judgment that the wage level for these jobs has been held in check by the ability of universities to hire foreign researchers at wage levels substantially below the average wage for new doctorates in the United States."-Michael G. Finn, Senior Economist, Oak Ridge Associated Universities
"Most of us [Professors] know very well -- and even admit to each other privately -- that the reason we import so many foreign graduate students is that they are a source of unquestioning, hard-working, intelligent, cheap labor who require little or no advising and who help us further our own careers."-David R. Burgess, Chairman of the department of biological sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, The Chronicle of Higher Education,10/10/97, Opinion, Page: B7 "
"The real problem for young Ph.D.'s, [UC Irvine Math Deparment Chairman Peter Li] says, is the recent influx of mathematicians from China and Eastern Europe who are willing to accept low wages. This tends to depress salaries, he says, forcing mathematicians to be "slave laborers."-Science Magazine Reporting the Views of UCI Math Department Chairman Peter Li
"The invisible hand has perhaps never been so invisible as it is to Mr. [Conelius] Pings in his defense of the Association of American Universities [as its president]. American universities, when buying academic talent in such a buyer's market, augmented by sweetheart immigration legislation, don't have to offer the foreign scientist a lower wage than that of the American. They just offer the same low wage to all. That is either good or bad, depending on which side of the ox's horns you reside."-Gerard E. Balsley Jr in the Wall Street Journal
"Some Americans lose from immigration, particularly professionals in fields where immigration is high..."-George J. Borjas and Richard B. Freeman, Harvard University, "FINDINGS WE NEVER FOUND: How a report on immigration was distorted." NYT Op-Ed, Weds., Dec. 10, 1997
"The impact of immigration on the U.S. labor market is not limited to low-skilled jobs. The Immigration Act of 1990 added the so-called Einstein exemption ... [and] also triples the annual cap on employment-based immigrant visas. .... a high price has been paid by native scholars. Since 1990, the unemployment rate for mathematics PhD's has nearly quintupled, from just over 2% to over 11% in 1995. The U.S. educational system, however, is benefiting. PhD graduates who before might have taught at universities are now teaching at junior colleges. Graduates who would have taught at junior colleges before are now teaching in high school. The enhanced competition for jobs has lowered the wages of teachers. The result is a better and cheaper educational system from top to bottom."-John D. Hancock, Senior Economist at 'The Dismal Scientist', "Immigrants: Keep or Keep Out?", October 14, 1997
"We'd be worse off still if we didn't turn to the third world for PhD's. Our own students shy away from graduate school, so we strip Asia of her best and brightest students. We give them an education and citizenship in exchange for making our machines run. Half our new engineering PhD's are immigrants. Without them, our colleges and hi-tech industry would be in real trouble."-John H. Lienhard, University of Houston, "SCI. & ENGR. EDUCATION", Engines of OurIngenuity No. 465.
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