International Talent Programs in the Changing Global Environment (2024)
Chapter: Front Matter
International Talent
Programs in the
Changing Global
Environment
______
Mark A. Barteau and
Sarah M. Rovito, Editors
Committee on International
Talent Programs in the
Changing Global Environment
U.S. Science and Innovation
Policy Theme
Policy and Global Affairs
Consensus Study Report
NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001
This activity was supported by a contract between the National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Department of Defense. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization or agency that provided support for the project.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-71959-9
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-71959-3
Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.17226/27787
Library of Congress Control Number: 2024948441
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Suggested citation: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2024. International Talent Programs in the Changing Global Environment. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/27787.
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COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL TALENT PROGRAMS IN THE CHANGING GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT
MARK A. BARTEAU (Chair) [NAE],* Charles D. Holland ‘53 Chair in Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University
CHAOUKI T. ABDALLAH, Executive Vice President for Research, Georgia Institute of Technology
HANNAH L. BUXBAUM, Vice President for International Affairs and Professor of Law and John E. Schiller Chair, Indiana University
CHRISTOPHER J. CRAMER, Senior Vice President and Chief Research Officer, UL Research Institutes
CHRISTOPHER P. FALL, Vice President for Applied Sciences, The MITRE Corporation
BRADLEY FARNSWORTH, Principal, Fox Hollow Advisory
SURESH V. GARIMELLA, President, University of Vermont
XIHONG LIN [NAS, NAM], Professor of Biostatistics and Coordinating Director of the Program in Quantitative Genomics at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Professor of Statistics at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University
TSU-JAE K. LIU [NAE], Dean of the College of Engineering and Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley
PATRICK F. MENSAH, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Senior Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Southern University and A&M College
AMY M. NICE, Distinguished Immigration Fellow and Visiting Scholar, Cornell University, and Distinguished Immigration Counsel, Institute for Progress
HARRIS PASTIDES, Distinguished President Emeritus, University of South Carolina
KIRON SKINNER, Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Visiting Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, and Faculty Member at the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy
___________________
* Designates membership in the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), National Academy of Engineering (NAE), or National Academy of Medicine (NAM).
HSIAO-WUEN HON, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Corporation (Retired) (until March 2024)
TRACIE B. LATTIMORE, Senior Director, Biosecurity Solutions, Ginkgo Bioworks, Inc. (until October 2023)
Study Staff
SARAH M. ROVITO, Study Director and Senior Program Officer, U.S. Science and Innovation Policy
TOM WANG, Policy Theme Lead and Senior Board Director, Committee on Science, Engineering, Medicine, and Public Policy, U.S. Science and Innovation Policy
MARIA LUND DAHLBERG, Director, Board on Higher Education and Workforce, U.S. Science and Innovation Policy
BEAU NIELSEN, Research Associate, U.S. Science and Innovation Policy
JORDAN GRAVES, Program Coordinator, U.S. Science and Innovation Policy
CLARA HARVEY-SAVAGE, Senior Finance Business Partner
SUMAIRA USMAN, Senior Finance Business Partner
Consultant
JOE ALPER, Consulting Writer
Reviewers
This Consensus Study Report was reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in making each published report as sound as possible and to ensure that it meets the institutional standards for quality, objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process.
We thank the following individuals for their review of this report: STEWART BARBER, Synopsys, Inc.; STEVE CAMAROTA, Center for Immigration Studies; CONG CAO, University of Nottingham; JOSEPH DeTRANI, Independent Consultant; PETER DORHOUT, Iowa State University; MARK ELLIOTT, Harvard University; MIRIAM FELDBLUM, Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration; JANE GATEWOOD, University of Rochester; RON HIRA, Howard University; JAMES HOLLOWAY, University of New Mexico; DOUGLAS KOTHE, Sandia National Laboratories; GISELA PEREZ KUSAKAWA, Asian American Scholar Forum; KATHRYN MOLER, Stanford University; TARA O’TOOLE, In-Q-Tel; DICK OBERMANN, U.S. House of Representatives (ret.); and AMANDA VERNON, National Science Foundation.
Although the reviewers listed above provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or
recommendations of this report nor did they see the final draft before its release. The review of this report was overseen by ROBERT SPROULL, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and ERIC KALER, Case Western Reserve University. They were responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with the standards of the National Academies and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content rests entirely with the authoring committee and the National Academies.
Acknowledgments
The committee acknowledges the U.S. Department of Defense for its support of this study.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF PRESENTERS
The committee gratefully acknowledges the contributions of the following individuals during open, public sessions held in support of the International Talent Programs in the Changing Global Environment consensus study:
April 28, 2023
- Kristopher Gardner, Director, Science and Technology Program Protection, Office of S&T Program Protection, U.S. Department of Defense
- Jude Blanchette, Freeman Chair in China Studies, Center for Strategic and International Studies
May 30, 2023
- Jason Matheny, President and Chief Executive Officer, RAND Corporation
June 28–29, 2023
- Jeremy Ison, Senior Policy Advisor, U.S. Department of Energy
- Julie Baer, Research Specialist, Institute of International Education
- Rebecca Keiser, Chief of Research Security Strategy and Policy, National Science Foundation
- L. Rafael Reif, President Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Kelvin Droegemeier, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences and Special Advisor to the Chancellor for Science and Policy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Abby Goldman, Research Staff Member, Institute for Defense Analyses Science and Technology Policy Institute
- Keith Crane, Research Staff Member, Institute for Defense Analyses Science and Technology Policy Institute
- Anna Puglisi, Senior Fellow, Center for Security and Emerging Technology, Georgetown University
- Zachary Arnold, Analytic Lead, Center for Security and Emerging Technology, Georgetown University
- Jacob Feldgoise, Data Research Analyst, Center for Security and Emerging Technology, Georgetown University
- Ali Crawford, Research Analyst, Center for Security and Emerging Technology, Georgetown University
- Tina Huang, Director of Strategic Initiatives, EqualAI
- Remco Zwetsloot, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Horizon Institute for Public Service
July 31, 2023
- Celia Merzbacher, Executive Director, Quantum Economic Development Consortium
- Carl Williams, Chief Executive Officer, CJW Quantum Consulting, LLC
August 31, 2023
- Bindu Nair, Director of Basic Research, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, U.S. Department of Defense
October 10–11, 2023
- Divyansh Kaushik, Associate Director, Emerging Technologies and National Security, Federation of American Scientists
- Jeremy Neufeld, Senior Immigration Fellow, Institute for Progress
- Caroline Wagner, Professor, John Glenn School of Public Affairs, The Ohio State University
- Denis Simon, Former Executive Vice Chancellor, Duke Kunshan University
- David Zweig, Professor Emeritus, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
- Tamara Savage, Policy Consultant, California Senate Office of Research
- Yu Xie, Bert G. Kerstetter ‘66 University Professor of Sociology, Princeton University
- Yangyang Cheng, Research Scholar in Law and Fellow, Paul Tsai China Center, Yale University
- Jeannette Wing, Executive Vice President for Research, Columbia University
- Peter Michelson, Luke Blossom Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences and Professor of Physics, Stanford University
December 7–8, 2023
- David Bier, Associate Director, Immigration Studies, CATO Institute
- Florent Bernard, Counsellor for Research and Innovation, Delegation of the European Union to the U.S.
- Greg Levesque, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Strider Technologies
- Diana Gehlhaus, Senior Advisor for Talent, Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, U.S. Department of Defense
- Kei Koizumi, Principal Deputy Director for Policy, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
- Kathleen Vogel, Professor, Arizona State University
- Sonia Ben Ouagrham-Gormley, Associate Professor, George Mason University
- Garrett Berntsen, Director for Technology and National Security, National Security Council
January 31–February 1, 2024
- Stuart Anderson, Executive Director, National Foundation for American Policy
- Kai Hirabayashi, Senior Manager for Public Policy, Amazon
- Scott Corley, Executive Director, Compete America Coalition, President, Corley Consulting LLC
- Matt Turpin, Visiting Fellow, Hoover Institution
February 28–29, 2024
- Glenn Tiffert, Distinguished Research Fellow, Hoover Institution
- Molly Roberts, Professor of Political Science, University of California, San Diego
- Ruixue Jia, Associate Professor of Economics, University of California, San Diego
- Yasheng Huang, Epoch Foundation Professor of Global Economics and Management, MIT Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Norbert Holtkamp, Science Fellow, Hoover Institution
- Michael Lauer, Deputy Director for Extramural Research, National Institutes of Health
March 12, 2024
- FBI Counterintelligence Division
Contents
Report Purpose, Charge, and Approach
The United States in the Global Competition for Talent
Historical Overview of China-U.S. Cooperation in Science and Technology
The Rise of China as a Global S&T Leader
The Flow of Chinese Talent to and from the United States
The Landscape for International Talent Post-China Initiative
The Current Geopolitical Landscape
3 NATIONAL SECURITY AND DEFENSE IMPLICATIONS OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND FOREIGN TALENT
Risks Associated with Foreign Talent and Open Research Environments
4 ATTRACTING AND RETAINING FOREIGN TALENT IN THE UNITED STATES
International Talent in the United States
Immigration and Visa-Related Provisions for Retaining Talent
Challenges in Retaining International Students
Perceptions Are Changing, and Not for the Better
5 HOW DO OTHER COUNTRIES ATTRACT AND RETAIN TALENT?
Review of Talent Attractiveness
Programs Used by Other Nations to Recruit and Retain STEM Talent
6 THE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF TALENT PROGRAMS IN CURRENT COUNTRIES OF CONCERN
Importance of Foreign STEM Talent to United States National Security and Competitiveness
International Competition for Highly Skilled STEM Talent
Talent Development, Recruitment, and Retention in the United States
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Preface
America Needs Talent! While this may not be the title of the next hit TV show, it is a remarkable consensus of industry, academic, and government leaders, as well as think tanks and analysts across the political spectrum. Warnings of talent shortfalls in the hundreds of thousands may grab headlines and draw attention to acute needs for talent in critical fields such as semiconductor manufacturing and artificial intelligence (AI), but they do not capture the breadth, depth, or long-standing nature of the United States’ talent and workforce needs.
Since the end of World War II, the United States has been the preeminent global talent magnet in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and beyond. The intrinsic advantages that this nation has enjoyed in the competition for international talent have included its economic and technological strength, as well as its values of freedom and opportunity that have served as a beacon to the world.
We as a nation miss a vital opportunity and a moral obligation if we do not also act to develop our domestic population, both citizens and noncitizens, particularly by engaging the “missing millions” from underrepresented groups and under-resourced communities. Recruitment and development of domestic talent versus international talent is not an either/or proposition; it is both/and. We need both if the United States is to drive the level of innovation that currently, according to the International Monetary Fund, generates 25 percent of the world’s gross domestic product with only 4 percent of the world’s population.
The U.S. research enterprise is especially dependent on foreign-born talent with advanced degrees. Roughly half of the faculty members in STEM fields at U.S. universities are foreign born, with higher percentages in fields such as computer science and AI. As one member of this consensus study committee aptly put it, “The United States has a talent recruitment program—it’s called graduate school!” It is in the national interest to provide more certain pathways into our domestic STEM workforce for the students we educate.
The global competition for talent is fiercer than ever. We have already witnessed increasing flows to both allies and potential adversaries resulting in part from more aggressive talent recruitment efforts. Congress’s failure to disentangle visa and immigration policies for students, STEM degree holders, and technology entrepreneurs from the broader challenges of comprehensive immigration reform represents a self-inflicted wound to the continuing scientific and economic leadership of this nation. It also has negative consequences for national security. Research and development in areas directly related to military and national security applications is classified, in accordance with the 1985 National Policy on the Transfer of Scientific, Technical and Engineering Information (NSDD-189). Participation is restricted to U.S. citizens who are able to obtain security clearances. By constricting the pipeline leading to legal permanent residency and ultimately to citizenship for STEM talent, we limit our access to talent in cutting-edge fields where leadership is critical to our national security.
The United States now finds itself engaged in what many see as a great power competition of a scale and scope that it has not previously experienced. The dramatic rise of China as a 21st century economic, technological, and military power presents the most comprehensive set of challenges to U.S. leadership since the end of World War II. It can be difficult to separate national security issues from the large flows of both commerce and talent that connect the United States and China. The flow of information, whether by licit or illicit means, is even more difficult to control. Improper transfers of technology, including intellectual property (IP) and trade secrets, are less dependent on the international movement of people than ever before thanks to electronic communication technologies. Examples of improper IP transfer by individuals and IP theft by remote hacking are well documented. While it is often difficult to determine the economic or security costs of such thefts, the issue is serious and persistent.
One mechanism for acquiring knowledge and, potentially, IP is talent recruitment programs. These seek to attract individuals with desired
expertise to contribute to the science and technology enterprise of the sponsoring entity. The best known of these is the Chinese government’s Thousand Talents Program, which spawned hundreds of such programs by provincial governments and other entities in China. Terms of engagement vary, but to the extent these programs conceal improper expectations or contractual obligations as defined by the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 and subsequent policies, they are defined to be malign. Other countries of concern, including Russia and Iran, have programs to recruit international talent that the United States also defines as malign.
U.S. institutions were slow to recognize the threat posed by foreign talent programs, especially those utilizing practices now regarded as malign. Unfortunately, the China Initiative launched by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2018 was highly problematic, especially in its disproportionate focus on fundamental research in academia. By pursuing criminal actions ahead of policy establishment and communication, it created a climate of uncertainty and fear, especially among Asian American scientists, that persists even now. Moreover, convictions obtained for espionage and IP theft were almost all outside the academic sector.
Federal agencies have since come together to create training programs and establish more uniform disclosure policies regarding foreign activities, including participation in foreign talent programs. Participation is now banned for individuals in federal agencies and national laboratories, and academics are more aware of the risks of participating in these programs. The approach of all parties in the research enterprise—government, business, and academia—must continue to evolve as policies and strategies are recognized as ineffective, counterproductive, or inadequate for responding to emergent issues. It is essential to balance the risks and rewards of international engagements without shredding the culture of collaboration that is firmly woven into scientific practice around the globe.
The decades ahead will likely see talent flows and collaborations grow between the United States and countries in other regions of the world, including the Global South. While these countries are unlikely to pose the national security challenges of great powers, their interests, politics, and cultures will not always align with those of the United States. Science has long proven to be an important tool of diplomacy, and engagement with both developing nations and low- and middle-income countries should be a policy priority. Whether we choose to elevate our level of engagement in developing STEM talent there or not, our competitors surely will.
This committee has benefited from a rich variety of viewpoints and experiences. Members represented industry, academia, professional organizations and think tanks, with members who had served in government under both Republican and Democratic administrations. Our speakers and commissioned paper authors brought an even broader range of perspectives. Our work has taken place against an evolving backdrop. The flood of materials released by federal agencies, as well as analyses of key issues by third parties and news and opinion pieces in the media, has at times seemed overwhelming. The committee is grateful to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine staff, especially our study director and senior program officer, Sarah Rovito, for managing this flow, as well as for her tireless efforts in support of this study. In this dynamic environment, the committee realizes that some of its recommendations will be overtaken by events, but we hope that others will stand the test of time and will spur policymakers to consider and enact strategic approaches to meeting the nation’s needs for both talent and security.
Mark A. Barteau, Chair
Committee on International Talent Programs in the Changing Global Environment
