A. Mushfiq Mobarak

Doctoral Students and U.S. Immigration Policy

Policies should promote skilled non-U.S. students to study, and stay, in the United States. Whether the United States should make it easier for foreign graduates of U.S. universities to acquire visas and permanent residency is an important question raised by current immigration reform proposals (1). Such policies should be informed by rigorous analyses of whether international doctoral students are important for research and support technological innovation. We discuss the evidence on this point, its implications, and some new policy ideas.