Press Room
Letter to the Washington Post
February 23, 2006
Letters to the Editor
The Washington Post
1150 15th Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20071
To the Editor:
The United States’ high-profile shut-out of a prominent Indian scientist displays in dramatic fashion the need for a national strategy to attract the world’s talent (“Scientist's Visa Denial Sparks Outrage in India,” Feb. 23). Goverdhan Mehta is an internationally recognized academic whose home country is a fast-emerging global competitor in technology and research and is the leading sender of foreign students to the United States.
Our government takes pride in saying that the welcome mat is out when it comes to talent from outside our borders. But these encouraging words are not matched by policy. Over the past five years, we have put so many obstacles in the way of our ability to be an attractive destination for the world's talent that the number of foreign students at U.S. higher education institutions is lower now than it was before 9/11. Major international scientific conferences have gone elsewhere. Our visa and immigration systems have not kept pace with the multinational nature of scientific inquiry, academic collaboration, and business today, and our leadership has not yet taken bold steps to protect the exchange of skills and knowledge that is vital to our competitiveness and security in the global age. The more we make it difficult for people to come and study, work, or live here, the more we opt out of the future of innovation and discovery.
Marlene M. Johnson
Executive Director and CEO
NAFSA: Association of International Educators
Letters to the Editor
The Washington Post
1150 15th Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20071
To the Editor:
The United States’ high-profile shut-out of a prominent Indian scientist displays in dramatic fashion the need for a national strategy to attract the world’s talent (“Scientist's Visa Denial Sparks Outrage in India,” Feb. 23). Goverdhan Mehta is an internationally recognized academic whose home country is a fast-emerging global competitor in technology and research and is the leading sender of foreign students to the United States.
Our government takes pride in saying that the welcome mat is out when it comes to talent from outside our borders. But these encouraging words are not matched by policy. Over the past five years, we have put so many obstacles in the way of our ability to be an attractive destination for the world's talent that the number of foreign students at U.S. higher education institutions is lower now than it was before 9/11. Major international scientific conferences have gone elsewhere. Our visa and immigration systems have not kept pace with the multinational nature of scientific inquiry, academic collaboration, and business today, and our leadership has not yet taken bold steps to protect the exchange of skills and knowledge that is vital to our competitiveness and security in the global age. The more we make it difficult for people to come and study, work, or live here, the more we opt out of the future of innovation and discovery.
Marlene M. Johnson
Executive Director and CEO
NAFSA: Association of International Educators
