While this is of course field specific, we have to recognize that competing on "equal" grounds with an American worker is never equal for the foreign born worker. An H1b visa seeker or holder didn't go to K-12 in English and doesn't share a high school graduation ring with his or her white male American old boys network counterpart. "Equal" always handicaps by far the foreign born competitor. She reads in English and tests in English. In their advanced degree they could not wait tables or bartend. Nor could they adjunct teach at the neighboring community college. Her child comes home bullied at school because she has an accent still. Isn't this the story grandma or grandpa had to live through in their time to make a better life for mom and dad and us? We approve then about the past as it benefits us and fail to see the connections with the colleague born abroad whom we oppose today? How then could we call ourselves American?:)
The good news? We have perseverance. America is built on it. So is the world. Lazy people seeking protectionism usually are swiped off by market swings ahead.. Let's just look at history... Someone Syrian who made obsolete the CD player?;) Remember him? The Russian inventor of the President's helicopter Marine One? Iranian inventor of hot pockets? Should we go on?
Adrian S. Petrescu, Ph.D., J.D.
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