like Harrison is getting Washington politicians to see it in the full context of not just a local fix but also global competition.


So will the STEM measures ultimately pass? A big bill is a big ask. STEM might even have to wait for that process to fail and then once more be considered discretely.


The real question, though, is this: how long does the US have before it itself surrenders too many attractions to technology workers and others are whittled away by rivals?


One other thing is acknowledged. Rival proposals that the US can fix the problem by focusing on STEM within the domestic education system and producing technologists of its own will no longer fly. "We've got five to seven years," says Wadhwa. "If you fixed the entire education system tomorrow, it would be a decade before you saw any results."


Today though, one key plank in China's preceding and current five-year plans is summed up in the oft-seen slogan" "From 'made in China' to 'created in China'". The country is determined to translate its hard-won mastery of high-tech third-party manufacturing into the generation of its own intellectual property for products that go into its megafactories.


Interestingly, the actual immigration numbers targeted by schemes like One Thousand Talents are small – in the four figures. About 2,900 have been signed up under the scheme so far. But the goal is to harness the same multiplier as built the US technology sector by identifying that small group of people who can create companies that employ tens, potentially hundreds of thousands.


It Ain't Over


Late last year, the IEEE played the central role in authoring The STEM Jobs Act of 2012 which managed to secure rare bipartisan support in the US legislature until it was blocked by the White House.


It would have given 55,000 permanent residency visas to foreign masters and doctorate graduates from US universities, overcoming many problems Wadhwa and Harrison identify. The problem was that the Obama administration wants such measures to be part of its big, all-encompassing package – especially if Republicans broadly support them, where they are more opposed to reforms aimed at Latinos.


That debate has got STEM much higher up the immigration agenda. The real challenge for lobbyists


Harrison is even blunter. "We have to sell our advantages now." Meanwhile, China isn't letting up. At its late 2012 Party Congress, the country hinted at still further changes to its visa system for attracting foreign nationals. There too, there is no guarantee of success. Incoming leader Xi Jinping has openly cited corruption as a major concern, and many question whether the country's economic growth rate can be maintained.


Those are major questions, but the international competition for engineering talent only looks set to intensify in the coming months. This article was published on the 11th of February 2013.


Find out more and subscribe to the IET’s magazine at: www.theiet.org.uk


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