Immigrants' Kids are Smarter
Children of immigrants are disproportionately better at science. That's the conclusion of an interesting new study from the National Foundation for American Policy, a generally pro-immigration (legal, that is) think-tank.
It's an interesting study, and probably confirms what most of us knew deep down:
One surprising characteristic unites the majority of America’s top high school science and math students – their parents are immigrants. While only 12 percent of the U.S. population is foreign-born, 70 percent of the finalists in the 2011 Intel Science Talent Search competition were the children of immigrants, according to a National Foundation for American Policy analysis. Just 12 of the 40 finalists at this year’s competition of the nation’s top high school science students had native-born parents. While former H-1B visa holders comprise less than 1 percent of the U.S. population, 60 percent of the finalists had parents who entered the U.S. on H-1B visas, which are generally the only practical way to hire skilled foreign nationals. Finalists’ parents sponsored through a family preference category represented 7.5 percent of the total, about four times higher than their proportion in the U.S.
The conclusion of the study -- and I suppose its point -- is to show the value of H-1B visas to the American economy in general. Smart kids who are great at science and math are absolutely crucial to a country that wants to compete.
Of course, we're talking mostly about China and India. And so the question is, by issuing H1-B visas, are we building up America's math and science future, or are we merely subsidising a competitor's growth? In other words, do most of these smart kids of immigrant parents return to their home country? The study says no: the achieving kids are the product of parents who came to this country initially with H1-B visas, stayed long enough to get a green card, and are on their way to full citizenship.
This is good news, no? Legal immigration -- especially of highly educated, highly motivated future parents -- is a good thing for the American economy.
Here's the bad news: applications for H1-B visas is slowing way down. From Globalvisas.com:
US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released the numbers over the weekend; revealing just 5,900 H1B visa applications had been lodged for the 2012 fiscal year since the agency began accepting petitions on April 1.
The number of visas issued each year is capped at 65,000 – a number which is usually reached long before the year’s end.
The cap for the 2011 fiscal year was reached in early January 2011 – just four months into the fiscal year.
This isn't a great sign. Either we're making the visa process too complicated and expensive, or we're just not as popular as we used to be.
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Jun '10
Re: Immigrants' Kids are Smarter
"While former H-1B visa holders comprise less than 1 percent of the U.S. population, 60 percent of the finalists had parents who entered the U.S. on H-1B visas, which are generally the only practical way to hire skilled foreign nationals."
This is an astounding fact !!
"This is good news, no? Legal immigration -- especially of highly educated, highly motivated future parents -- is a good thing for the American economy."
Yes --- especialy if, as you say, most of them stay and move along the path to citizenship.
I am curious to know why the applications are slowing done --- is it simply because of our crappy economy & the weak dollar?
Jul '10
Re: Immigrants' Kids are Smarter
Another possibility is that the pressure that used to drive H-1B visa applications isn't there so much anymore. As the Indian and Chinese economies accelerate their growth, opportunities at home increase for that part of their respective populations that used to look to the US for opportunity.
As for the success of immigrant children on standardized tests: we're talking about a self-selected population of risk-takers and self-starters. Mom and Dad took a flyer on a life in the US, so it would not be surprising to see some of that work ethic and drive transferred to the next generation. It would be fascinating to see test results from subsequent generations of south and east asians, after two or three generations of marination in our sans souci culture.
Jan '11
Re: Immigrants' Kids are Smarter
I'm wondering why is there a cap on those visas at all?! These are exactly the kind of immigrants we need.
Jun '10
Re: Immigrants' Kids are Smarter
Tripedis, I agree. It's certainly a group who show innitiative and risk taking and place value on science education. I don't think Rob's headline was meant to imply some kind of genetic superiority.
I see the first generation South & East Asian kids in my town & at local private schools being drilled and driven unmercifully. Cram schools, tight restrictions on socializing, strict controls over every club or sport or activity --- a tiger mom dynamic for sure. It does ease up with each generation, though. It's a natural part of assimilation.
One topic we could go off on a tangent & discuss is the interplay between scientific mastery & creativity. Certainly the Americans have had the upper hand in the creativity area. Even Intel awards have morphed over time to reflect the new immigrants --- it used to be won by the "October Sky" type projects that were incredibly practical, applied science that could be learned & demonstrated by tinkering in the basement. Now the kids are all sponsored by leading research institutions and their mentors have a much greater role in the contest. Pure science wins over applied. The H1B visa parents know the game.
Mar '11
Re: Immigrants' Kids are Smarter
Rob Long:
This isn't a great sign. Either we're making the visa process too complicated and expensive, or we're just not as popular as we used to be. ·
It's a bit of both.
I came to the US in 1985 with an H1B Visa. Yeah, my kids are smart, and by the time I finally got my US Citizenship they had moved back to the UK to finish their education and start their careers.
Sad to say, the UK is now more business-friendly than the USA - so they made the right decision.
The company that sponsored me back then has since sold off most of its operations, and I now work for the US division of a Japanese company. I can't think of a US company in my field that would be in a position to sponsor me, if I was starting now.
On the other hand, I work with some very smart US citizens, of US-born parents - the majority of them are Liberals, products of the American education system!
Edited on May 24, 2011 at 8:08amDec '10
Re: Immigrants' Kids are Smarter
Actually, this is terrible news.
These immigrants, often scientists themselves, take a direct hand in their childrens' education, often spending a lot of money on private tutors and private schools. These children of immigrants are thus less attached to the general culture.
Moreover, it indicates that American education is just terrible. I have a colleague who is moving to Germany in part because of American public education.
It isn't just the religious faith that most liberals have in public education as an institution, it isn't just the failure of the institutions themselves thanks to unions, it's also the general American educational philosophy.
We're still living under the assumption that advanced education is for an elite leisure class and so we still have a liberal arts educational model. A mathematics "major" takes no more than 1/3rd of his coursework in mathematics. Even the rest is not necessarily related coursework such as physics or computer science. Much of it is a high school curriculum like English or Political Science.
The people they compete against to go into graduate school take over 2/3rds of their university coursework in their chosen area.
Dec '10
Re: Immigrants' Kids are Smarter
Point of order, Rob: your headline is inverted. It should be "Smarter Kids Are Immigrants." The article says that the smart kids tend to be immigrants' kids, but says nothing about the overall level of academic achievement across all immigrants' kids.
Dec '10
Re: Immigrants' Kids are Smarter
This isn't a great sign. Either we're making the visa process too complicated and expensive, or we're just not as popular as we used to be.
It is complicated, but still easier than Europe (in general) for non-Europeans. The EU is disincentivizing immigration from outside in favor of intra-European migration.
It's just not an imperative anymore to come to the US. I have a younger colleague who would have had several American options after his US postdoc, but he decided to return to India for a "permanent" job. It still isn't a great job, but if you include the social reasons, it's fine for him and he'll live comfortably and will do good work. He wouldn't have done that a decade ago.
Dec '10
Re: Immigrants' Kids are Smarter
David Williamson
On the other hand, I work with some very smart US citizens, of US-born parents - the majority of them are Liberals, products of the American education system! · May 24 at 8:06am
Edited on May 24 at 08:08 am
The education system doesn't make them smart, it makes them prepared.
Or not.
My experience is that it does a horrible job of preparation from K through undergraduate school.
Re: Immigrants' Kids are Smarter
I suspect that this is less of a commentary on the intelligence of the children of immigrants than a commentary on the inadequacy of America's public schools. No Child Left Behind means no talented child gets ahead. For a long time now, in a suicidal attempt to level up, we have succeeded in leveling down.
Feb '11
Re: Immigrants' Kids are Smarter
It's good to attract talented immigrants, of course, but I don't see much future for America if we have to use immigration as the principal source of talent for any field that is actually *hard*. True that the schools and to some extent the culture have failed to produce an appropriate number of kids with scientific talent & interests...the schools and the culture have *also*, via the excesses of the "self-esteem" movement and helicopter parenting, produced a significant % of kids who are so emotionally brittle that they could not succeed in any career involving risk of rejection/failure and consequent need for emotional resilience...ie, sales, entrepreneurship, and most real executive jobs. Are we also going to import our salesmen, businesspeople, and executives?
Exactly what kind of jobs *can* be done by the majority of kids born to non-immigrant parents, marinated in the mainstream culture, and pseudo-educated in the public schools?
Aug '10
Re: Immigrants' Kids are Smarter
Exactly. How you may ask can one be true and not the other? Basically, "are kids of immigrants smart" is about difference in means and "are smart kids the children of immigrants" is about difference in the density of the right-tail, which is as much a function of kurtosis as it is of mean.
The real policy upshot of this is that immigration is not a single quantity where the only question is more versus less. Rather there are different streams of immigration and we have a policy option of quantity for each stream. This study has exactly nothing one way or the other to say about issues like amnesty, but it does suggest that we should consider making our system more skill-based and less reliant on things like family reunification --- this is basically what Canada does.
Edited on May 24, 2011 at 9:05amDec '10
Re: Immigrants' Kids are Smarter
That NCLB view isn't new. My high school wanted to eliminate "tracking" in the early 90s. Tracking is where honors and college-prep students are separated from the rest of the class for academic subjects.
Dec '10
Re: Immigrants' Kids are Smarter
david foster:
Exactly what kind of jobs *can* be done by the majority of kids born to non-immigrant parents, marinated in the mainstream culture, and pseudo-educated in the public schools? · May 24 at 8:51am
Law and journalism. Basically any field in which being a native English speaker is essential will ensure almost no overseas competition.
Look at how few foreign-educated students and professors are in law schools or journalism schools.
Jun '10
Re: Immigrants' Kids are Smarter
NCLB was deeply flawed from its inception. Legislation to address our nation's educational failures from the federal level creates a one size fits all solution to problems that are as variable as individual schools and communities are diverse. The bill did succeed in expanding the educational bureaucracy, which a cynical person might believe was the whole point in the first place.
Apr '11
Re: Immigrants' Kids are Smarter
I believe we need "Right to learn" states like we have "Right to work" states.
Why is anyone except the teachers unions against vouchers. let us decide if we want to join the "Union" or not. Make the Department of Education come and collect my "Union dues" that I pay to fund the schools across the country just as most of us do with our school tax locally.
Rob, the problem is with the entitlement idea of a right to an education which is code for a right to a diploma at whatever level of higher or lower learning we are speaking about.
May '10
Re: Immigrants' Kids are Smarter
It should be renamed "The Harrison Bergeron Act of 2001."
Mar '11
Re: Immigrants' Kids are Smarter
AmishDude
My experience is that it does a horrible job of preparation from K through undergraduate school.
I think that's true. But, at least in the scientific and technical fields, if they get that far, graduate school is very good, probably the best in the World - it's why those programs are full of people from Asia, with US citizens in an ever-decreasing minority.
Graduate students are well-prepared to work, but there are not so many opportunities, now, in private industry. Unless they are lucky enough to get a Federal Government job, they either stay on as Post-Docs, or go back home, if they are immigrants and can't find a sponsor, here. Many companies, including mine, don't want the time and expense of going through the horrific Immigration system.
Of course, if they studied liberal arts, they are pretty much unemployable ;-)
Jan '11
Re: Immigrants' Kids are Smarter
Trying to address a complex issue in a few sentences isn't easy for an amateur - but I'll try. Immigrants who go through the legal process are generally hard-working, intelligent, and driven. Their progeny see this, and that interrelationship produces hard working kids (who are often talented as well). As generations progress, the sense of "good fortune" dissipates, and being wealthy and comfortable is viewed as the normal circumstance and a birthright - hence the abundant slackers coasting through college obtaining useless degrees, expecting jobs magically to appear simply because they were born in a wealthy country and sat through classes for four years, often writing and/or plaigerizing boilerplate essays.
Speaking from the music point of view - our amateur orchestra sees a variety of extraordinary young (local) soloists each year - and although I haven't direct evidence, I believe that the vast majority are all first generation children of immigrants, who are reputedly extraordinary scholars as well.
Jun '10
Re: Immigrants' Kids are Smarter
"These immigrants, often scientists themselves, take a direct hand in their childrens' education, often spending a lot of money on private tutors and private schools. These children of immigrants are thus less attached to the general culture.
Moreover, it indicates that American education is just terrible."
Let's narrow this down to exactly what the study talks about: The Intel Science Talent Search. (Formerly Westinghouse.)
I would not view this particular study as an indicator of bad American ecucation. It focuses on kids whose parents hold H1B visas and are likely to work in a hi-tech field. These institutions and research colleges have Intel development programs in place and naturally, the kids of those who work there are favored for spots. It usually consists of intense mentoring and sometimes the scientist is just bringing a kid along as an intern.
Many high schools in the US have science research classes designed to slot kids into Intel partnerships. As with the corporations and colleges, the prestige of having a high placing Intel kid associated with your institution is great PR.
I would conclude that winning Intel is as much a case of who you know, as what you know.