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Children of Immigrants Dominate High School Science Competition

by Kent Hoover

The Washington Bureau

Monday, May 30, 2011
 
A new study found that 70 percent of the finalists in the 2011 Intel Science Talent Search competition were the children of immigrants.

The National Foundation for American Policy study also found that 60 percent of the finalists had parents who got jobs in the U.S. thanks to employer-sponsored H-1B visas, which enable skilled professionals to work in America.

People who have received H-1B visas account for less than 1 percent of the U.S. population. Their children, however, won 24 of the 40 finalist slots in the Intel Science Talent Search competition, which requires high school students to submit a research paper documenting their findings. More than 95 percent of the competition's winners have pursued science as a career. Alumni of the competition have won seven Nobel Prizes.

"Preventing the entry of H-1B visa holders, skilled immigrants and family-sponsored immigrants would shut off the flow of a key segment of America's next generation of scientists and engineers -- the children of immigrants -- because we would not have allowed in their parents," the study concluded.

China, India and South Korea were the leading countries of origin for the immigrant parents of the finalists. Many of these parents came to the U.S. as international students.

The federal government currently limits the number of regular H-1B visas to 65,000, with another 20,000 available to foreign nationals who earn a master's degree or above in the U.S. Those caps temporarily were increased a decade ago, in response to a shortage of skilled workers in the high-tech industry.

"Liberalizing our nation's immigration laws will likely yield even greater rewards for America in the future," said Stuart Anderson, executive director of the Arlington, Va.-based foundation.

For more information, see www.nfap.com