Pointless rant

[petmoosie]

A blog I read (why? just to get my bloodpressure up, I guess) linked to this study. The use (or the theme) of the study was to say that girls aren't interested in science (and engineering) as a career because they aren't glamorous.

Well, maybe girls (and boys) aren't interested in science as a career because it doesn't pay. Because it is difficult to be employed in.

It has low status and part and parcel of that is the large number of foreigners in it. There are lots of ways to think about the large number of foreigners. One is that the US is open to talent from all over the world and the best people in the world work here in science. Another is that science is very willing to give out visas, so an American-born scientist must compete against the best in the world. Another is that developing countries need scientists and engineers (to build the things that have already been built here) so their governments will train them, but all anyone wants to do is come to the US and we are highly willing to give out visas for scientists (to a lesser extent, engineers). There is a tipping point, where the labor market is based on the foreigners and only secondarily considers US citizens. Now, in academia, there are protected places for US citizens due to the willingness of the government to subsidize training of US citizens to "promote our competitiveness".

There are programs to get disadvantaged youth into the sciences. There aren't as many to get disadvantaged youth into banking, or the law or education or even medicine. (This could be due to a perception bias, because I see more recruitment ads for science.)

The study doesn't include computer programmer or computer person (technically a computer technician, but other titles are so often used that "computer person" has become the most descriptive). There are jobs there. Many of the former scientists are filling them.

I "hear" that things are better in other parts of the US.

Yes, I know that that article is about the United Kingdom. But my rant is about the US.

Comments

[metageek.livejournal.com]

Hmm. In the commercial world, you're not supposed to be able to hire a foreigner on an H-1B visa unless you just can't get an American to do the job. (Enforcement is pretty weak, mind you.) Is it different in academia?

[petmoosie.livejournal.com]

J-1 visas. Maybe they get switched to H-1Bs after you've been here a while (and they can write a job description for you and only you). Or maybe you get sent home and someone else takes your place.