zlacker

“eliminate the STEM OPT extension”

I won’t get into h1b which gets plenty of air time, but this is the first time I’ve ever heard anyone wanting to eliminate OPT. This is beyond idiotic. Foreigners come and get educated in the US; if we didn’t have OPT they’d have to go back to their home country and contribute there. Instead with OPT we give them a chance to integrate into American companies, making the US more competitive as a whole. This is a massive strategic advantage. Places like MIT/CalTech/CMU are heavily made up of foreigners. We need the best and brightest minds from the world; only pulling from 350M vs 8B is a giant mistake.

>>azinma+(OP)
One of the big advantages US has is that it's on the receiving end of brain drain. A lot of the best talent worldwide wants to go to US, learn in the US and work in the US.

>>azinma+(OP)
More like they come to America because there aren't enough opportunities or good enough facilities back at home, get years of experience and knowledge, then go back home and start a billion dollar business that starts competing with said American companies they were just working for.

>>azinma+(OP)
The STEM OPT _extension_ is an additional year on top of the one year that all graduates get. I believe the article is arguing for getting rid of that extension, not all OPT.

>>corima+Nl
I’d love to see the data on this. There aren’t that many billion dollar businesses, period, especially compare to the number of people on OPT.

If the US is a great place with more opportunity, then the pressure is to stay versus go back. When the US becomes anti-foreigner, then we all lose.

>>waitwh+Po
Good point, but does 2 vs 3 years really make a difference in the context of the larger argument?