"Foreign students: Not welcome here"

Seems dopey to me.

America has the best universities in the world, but its immigration enforcers have done a good job of making them less attractive. The proportion of the world’s overseas students who come to America has fallen from 23% in 2000 to 18% in 2009. America educated 66% of the world’s MBAs in 2000; that share fell to 44% in 2011, and has shrivelled even in absolute terms, from 126,000 to 116,000. The biggest turn-off is the difficulty of obtaining a work visa after graduating—even highly-skilled foreigners typically wait a decade for a green card. President Barack Obama pays lip service to the need to open up, but has overseen millions of deportations. A new study from the Kauffman Foundation, a think-tank in Missouri, finds that anti-immigrant politics appear to have stunted American enterprise. The proportion of Silicon Valley startups with immigrant founders has tumbled from 52% to 44% since 2005.

Comments

[Ted Craig]

Are they sure it's us and not the rest of the world? In 2000, the world economy was still pretty strong.Also, maybe more people are opting to stay in their own countries.

[Steve S]

I agree with the sentiment but I have to call out the editorializing on their part with the "tumbled from 52% to 44% since 2005" line.

Really? Tumbled? Is this like 10 fewer start-ups by immigrants?

[kyle8]

It is a two tiered system. On the one hand we stop educated immigrants from filling jobs we need filled. on the other hand turn a blind eye to millions of illegal immigrants who only have skills for low wage jobs which are not in demand right now.