Flagging prospects in US resulting in reverse 'brain drain'

Burgeoning new economies abroad and flagging prospects in the United States are pushing “talented” immigrants, including those from India, to move back to their homes, according to a new study.

For more than 40 years, India and China suffered a major “brain drain” as tens of thousands of talented people made their way to the US, a news report here, said quoting Vivek Wadhwa author of the study.

The lumbering US immigration rules have forced talent from these nations, 80 per cent of whom held Master’s degrees or doctorates in management, technology or science — precisely the kind of people who could make the greatest contribution to the US economy, to move back. Pointing out that “America’s loss will be the world’s gain”, Wadhwa said , in study published in Washington Post today, said, “Immigrants who leave the US will launch companies, file patents and fill the intellectual coffers of other countries. “Their talents will benefit nations such as India, China and Canada, not the US,” the study said.

Almost 25 per cent of all international patent applications filed fromthe US in 2006 named foreign nationals as inventors, Wadhwa said.